Chennai-based deeptech company Solinas Integrity has raised $5.5 million in a Series A1 funding round co-led by Mela Ventures and Hero Enterprise Partner Ventures, with participation from Luthra Group and follow-on investment from existing backers SVL-SME Fund (managed by SBI Ventures), Rainmatter Capital and 8X Ventures Fund I. The round underscores growing investor confidence in robotics and AI-driven solutions for critical urban infrastructure that has historically relied on manual inspection and maintenance.
Founded by Divanshu Kumar and Moinak Banerjee and incubated at IIT Madras, Solinas builds full-stack robotics and AI systems that inspect, clean and digitise underground water, wastewater and sanitation networks — infrastructure that in India is typically maintained through manual methods that the company describes as hazardous, time-consuming and largely unmonitored. Its flagship product, Endobot, is described as Asia's first robotic pipeline inspection system, part of a broader vertically integrated platform that maps underground infrastructure, diagnoses defects and delivers end-to-end maintenance solutions.
The startup's technology addresses a problem with significant human cost: manual sewer and pit cleaning in India has long been associated with worker deaths and health hazards, an issue that has drawn sustained government attention through schemes such as the National Action for Mechanised Sanitation Ecosystem (NAMASTE). Solinas' robotics platform is positioned to replace this manual work with automated inspection and cleaning, simultaneously improving worker safety and giving city utilities visibility into infrastructure that has traditionally been invisible until it fails.
The fresh capital will be used to expand manufacturing capacity, accelerate product development, strengthen software infrastructure and support working capital as the company scales its government and enterprise contracts. Solinas is targeting international expansion into Southeast Asia and the Middle East, alongside a goal of reaching Rs 100 crore in revenue by fiscal year 2028. Krishnakumar Natarajan, Managing Partner at Mela Ventures, said the firm had tracked the founders' progress for four years and viewed Solinas as an example of "fearless founders solving globally hard problems from India." Sunil Kant Munjal, Chairman of Hero Enterprise, said the investment reflected a belief that India's most consequential infrastructure challenges required bold, technology-first solutions rather than incremental fixes.
Government-backed infrastructure programmes including AMRUT, the Jal Jeevan Mission and NAMASTE are together driving an estimated $1.5-2 billion in annual public and multilateral investment into modern water and sanitation inspection technologies, a demand base that positions Solinas' vertically integrated robotics model to capture a meaningful share of India's urban infrastructure modernisation spending over the coming decade.
