In the latest episode of Gen.T’s Crazy Smart Asia podcast, the Hong Kong-based entrepreneur shares how his company isn’t “just making something we think is cool”, but solving a real-world problem
As a child growing up in the landlocked Indian city of Bangalore, Sidhant Gupta was used to seeing pollution. But instead of accepting the problem as part of his life, he sought to correct it in his own way.
Fascinated with robots since a young age, he created a world record-breaking robotic fish that could swim faster than Olympian Michael Phelps. Later, he scored a scholarship to study computer software engineering in Hong Kong, where he would come to launch and run his company Clearbot, creating solar-powered autonomous boats that clean up the city’s waterways.
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Clearbot’s fleet of boats is not only able to pick up rubbish from the waters, but they can also analyse the composition of the waste collected and highlight trends in the origins of pollution with the use of AI. These data can then be shared with governmental agencies to monitor waste and with companies looking to track and reduce their environmental impact. The boats can also be
The potential of its boats has helped it to secure partnerships with tech giant Microsoft, Singaporean gaming company Razer and real estate company Sino Group, as well as recognition at the 2022 Alibaba Jumpstarter Award.
In this week’s episode of Gen.T’s Crazy Smart Asia podcast, Gupta dives deeper into his story of building the Tesla of the seas and thoughts on why all businesses should be social impact businesses.
Here are a few excerpts from the conversation. Click the audio player below to listen to the full episode or subscribe via Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
The aha moment
“[My co-founder and I] were like two kids at a hackathon, pitching this very random idea with a PDF, and somebody says, ‘Hey, here’s the dollar amount. Can you build this and come tomorrow morning to my site?’ I think that was an aha moment for us because we [realised that] people were desperate. There’s a real demand for this stuff. We're not just making something we think is cool.”
Difficulties in fundraising
“When we went out to get investment, a lot of people were just like, either you are an environmentalist and we don't believe in your business, or you're just too young. I mean, [to them], we were a bunch of 23-year-old kids asking for half a million bucks. So that was a very difficult phase for the company. Eventually, we got lucky with the Razer partnership and then it kind of working out [from there].”
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