Divanshu Kumar did not set out to become an entrepreneur. A college project at IIT Madras led him to a problem few technologists choose to confront directly. Manual scavenging, despite being banned in India, continues to claim lives. Kumar decided to build a technical solution that could remove humans from this dangerous work.

That decision led to the founding of Solinas Integrity Private Limited in 2018.

At 28, Kumar is the co-founder and CEO of the Chennai-based company, which designs robots to clean septic tanks, manholes, drains and water pipelines. The aim is direct. Replace human entry into hazardous spaces with machines.

A Problem That Refused to Go Away

Manual scavenging was banned in India in 2013. Yet the practice continues. Sewer workers still enter toxic spaces to clean waste, often without safety gear. Between 1993 and 2020, more than 900 sanitation workers died while working in sewers, according to the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis.

Kumar encountered this reality during a college project. A group of manual scavengers approached his team and asked for a safer way to clean manholes and septic tanks. That request shaped his direction.

He began working on a prototype that could clean without human contact.

From Campus Prototype to Company

Kumar studied mechanical engineering at IIT Madras and later completed a master’s degree in product design. His early prototypes focused on removing blockages in drains and septic tanks.

The work was slow and physical. Designing robots that could operate in narrow, wet and corrosive environments took time. Pipelines varied in material and size. Some were as narrow as 90 mm.

By 2021–22, Kumar and his team gained confidence that the product worked and solved a real problem. Seed funding in July 2022 gave Solinas the capital to scale operations.

What Solinas Builds

Solinas works in two main areas. The first is cleaning septic tanks, drains and sewers. The second is inspection and cleaning of water pipelines.

The company has developed two core robots.

Endobot is a crawler robot used for pipeline inspection and cleaning. It can move through pipelines of different materials with diameters ranging from 90 mm to 1500 mm. The robot captures data on cracks, blockages and leaks.

HomoSEP is designed for septic tanks and manholes. It uses cleaning blades, suction and a storage system to remove waste. One key feature is its ability to break down hard sludge into slurry, which makes pump-out safer and more effective.

According to Solinas’ team, HomoSEP removes the need for humans to enter toxic spaces.

Adding Data to Cleaning

Beyond hardware, Solinas has built a digital layer called Swasth AI. It is a cloud-based platform that stores and processes data collected by Endobot.

The system tags defects with location data and generates reports for clients. This helps civic bodies plan maintenance and prevent flooding.

Solinas has filed 10 patents and received patents for two products so far.

Team and Operations

Moinak Banerjee joined Solinas in 2020 and now serves as CTO and co-founder. He works closely with Kumar on product design and deployment.

Another early co-founder, Bhavish Narayani, exited the company in 2024.

Solinas operates from Chennai and works mainly with government bodies, housing societies and industrial units.

Its clients include Suez, Veolia, Larsen & Toubro, Daimler, and municipal corporations such as Chennai, Aurangabad and Sangli.

Revenue and Funding

Solinas raised $5 million from investors including SBI Ventures, 8X Ventures, Rainmatter, Veltis Capital, the Weizmann Group family office and angel investor Ramesh Mangaleshwaran.

The company closed FY24 with revenue of ₹4.5 crore and an EBITDA loss of ₹2.8 crore. It expects revenue of ₹15 crore in FY25 and plans to break even based on its current order book.

Why Investors Are Watching

Suken Shah, principal investment officer at SBI Ventures, says Solinas aligns with national goals around clean water and sanitation. He notes that robotics-led solutions can reduce cost, labour risk and water loss.

Kumar believes robotics and artificial intelligence can address sanitation in a complete way rather than as a patch.

Looking Ahead

Solinas sells robots and also offers maintenance services. Kumar says the company aims to work across more than 100 Indian cities and expand to 10 countries.

His target is to build a ₹500 crore business by FY30 while removing humans from sewer cleaning.

For Kumar, growth matters only if the core mission stays intact.

He wants a future where no one has to enter a sewer to earn a living. The machines should do that work instead.

FAQs

Q1. Who is Divanshu Kumar?
Divanshu Kumar is an Indian entrepreneur and the co-founder and CEO of Solinas Integrity Private Limited.

Q2. What does Solinas Integrity do?
Solinas builds robots to clean septic tanks, drains, sewers and inspect water pipelines.

Q3. What are Endobot and HomoSEP?
Endobot is a pipeline inspection robot, while HomoSEP is a septic tank and manhole cleaning robot.

Q4. How much revenue did Solinas Integrity make in FY24?
The company reported revenue of ₹4.5 crore in FY24.