IIT-IIM Alumni Startup Builds India's Most Effective Portable Air Purifiers - Shashi Tharoor Becomes Patron

If you’re a history buff, you likely know that in the 1930s and 1940s, cigarette companies were almost using testimonials from doctors to promote their brands. Their advertisements used language suggesting that the medical community endorsed certain cigarettes as causing “less irritation.”

All of this happened for one simple reason: a serious lack of research.

In hindsight, this might seem excusable. We might think: they were unaware, people didn’t know, and science didn’t have concrete evidence.

But how do we ever excuse ourselves from looking at air pollution with a dismissive lens? 

Despite tons and tons of research loudly telling us that exposure to high air pollution increases the risk of cancer, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, diabetes mellitus, obesity, and even reproductive, neurological, and immune system disorders.

In an exclusive interview with Startup Pedia, Anmay Shahlot highlights an even more terrifying statistic, “Air pollution is not just about getting diseases. It actually eats up the years you have and reduces the life expectancy of Indians by an average of 5.9 years. Imagine!”

Concerned with air pollution and the urgent need to tackle it, Anmay Shahlot, Aditi Agrawal, and Siddharth Goel teamed up to launch atovio. This Hisar-based D2C brand offers lightweight yet extremely effective, portable air purifiers designed especially for Indian environments to help people breathe freely and healthily.

THE BACKSTORY

Anmay Shahlot did his MBA from IIM Indore and started a career in management consulting. 

Aditi Agrawal studied architecture at the Jindal School of Art & Architecture. She runs a D2C brand called Kids Station.

As for Siddharth Goel, he did his engineering from IIT Kanpur and became an electronics engineer. He is also an entrepreneur who dabbles in manufacturing parts for electric vehicles.

“Aditi and I are cousins. Aditi’s and Anmay’s fathers go way back, having worked together in production and manufacturing businesses. They have a lot of experience with Chinese suppliers", says atovio founder Siddharth Goel.

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Having grown up in highly polluted areas like Gurugram, Kanpur, and Hisar, the trio of entrepreneurs had been researching ways to combat air pollution. The problem with most air purifiers they came across was that either they weren’t portable or were simply not suited for the type of pollution in India, which ranges from factory pollution to construction and vehicular pollution.

Siddharth recounts an experience that led him to take air pollution seriously, “This was back when I was studying at IIT Kanpur. It was Diwali season and my friends and I decided to leave the campus and go outside. I saw a woman in an auto with a baby who was coughing very badly. She kept covering the baby’s mouth with her dupatta in the hope that it would act as a filter. That was how bad the air quality was there.”

He adds, “I couldn’t help but think about the dichotomy of living standards — I was breathing freely during Diwali simply because my campus was in a secluded area. But what about others?”

In 2024, Anmay, Aditi, and Siddharth got together and founded their startup called atovio. The mission was simple: help Indians get clean air wherever they go. The answer was portable air purifiers that really did what they claimed.

THE CHALLENGES

When atovio started, it brought with it certain temptations. Speaking exclusively to Startup Pedia, Anmay Shahlot says, “Our fathers have a lot of contacts in the Chinese manufacturing and labeling businesses. It was tempting to just send out a design, get it manufactured from China, and brand and market the product in India. In one single go, all our production worries would be solved. But no. We didn’t go that way.”

The air purifier startup founders were very clear that they would build atovio entirely in India — not just design it here but also make, manufacture, and brand it in the country. 

Aditi Agrawal tells Startup Pedia, “We wanted to align with the Prime Minister’s initiative of Make-in-India and give our target market a product tailored specifically for them. We didn’t want to be just another generic air purifier company.”

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Anmay Shahlot, Siddharth Goel, and Aditi Agrawal pooled their personal savings and started building the product after conducting in-depth Research & Development.

“We wanted the design to be sleek — something that can complement people’s outfits instead of making them look out of place. A lot of thought went behind it,” Anmay remarks.

Multiple steps went into manufacturing and building the electronic components and outer shells. Siddharth Goel, who manages production, says that everything was extremely hectic because they wanted to launch the brand before Diwali.

Over time, everything fell into place and the startup founders released the products for the market launch on the 24th of November in 2024.

atovio: BREATHE CLEAN AIR WHEREVER YOU GO

atovio offers ‘India’s most effective’ portable air purifiers. They are packed with their patent-pending Advanced Variable Anion Technology that tackles air pollution and makes the air around the customer clean and safe to breathe.

atovio underwent rigorous testing at the National Aerosol Facility at IIT Kanpur under the guidance of Professor S.N Tripathi, an advisor to the Central Government on all matters of urban pollution. The main results of the tests were:

• atovio’s air purifiers successfully reduce pollution by 90% in a 35-cubic-feet space.

• This 90% reduction in pollution happens in just a period of about 30  minutes.

How does it work?

The air purifier startup’s devices employ cutting-edge Advanced Variable Anion Technology to purify the air of microscopic, invisible threats such as PM2.5, viruses, bacteria, and bad odours.

Once one turns on the air purifier, it begins generating millions of anions every second to combat airborne pollutants. These anions then create O2 negative ions by interacting with oxygen in the atmosphere.

Then they’re released to seek out positively charged pollutants in the air. The result is them merging and clustering together and falling out of one’s breathing area.

“This technology is also effective in eliminating harmful viruses and bacteria.This happens because of a process called protein oxidation. This attacks the cellular structures of the pollutants rendering them inactive. That’s the science behind it. For the layman, the best way to understand this is by knowing that atovio will keep purifying the air around you, even when you’re indoors or outdoors", explains Siddharth Goel while talking to Startup Pedia.

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Products

Presently, atovio offers two products: The Pebble and The Oasis.

The Pebble has a super portable and sleek design that is perfect for everyday use. It comes with a filter-free technology that requires absolutely no maintenance. Customers can simply wear it around their necks and enjoy clean, light air wherever they go.

The Oasis, on the other hand, is a workspace air purifier that one can set at their desk. It comes in the shape of an aesthetic flower pot that looks more like a decoration than an air purifier. 

The only thing customers need to do is charge these purifiers when needed with a convenient C-type charging.

Entrepreneurs Anmay Shalot, Aditi Agrawal, and Siddharth Goel are actively working towards releasing new products that cater to kids, babies, and homeowners.

GROWTH STORY

Even though atovio, as a startup, is relatively new, it has already achieved credibility by getting tested at the National Aerosol Facility, IIT Kanpur.

Well-known public figures like Shashi Tharoor, Savitri Jindal, Prof Shamika Ravi (member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister), and Luke Coutinho are customers of the brand.

The startup operates with a small team of 10 people who are on a freelance and contractual agreement. Most of the heavy lifting is done by the founders themselves.

Anmay Shalot concludes by saying, “One of our key challenges is to raise awareness. People have become complacent about air pollution, terming it a ‘season’ rather than an epidemic, which it truly is. We aren’t fear-mongering. Instead, we are simply providing a solution to a problem we hope gets addressed at a bigger, policy-level scale. Until then, atovio will ensure you breathe clean air wherever you go.

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