• How did the founder or team finalize the problem statement/what made the founder or team take it up?

1. The start-up was founded by Mr. Muthu Kumar a Ph.D. pursuing student in the Department of Aerospace engineering.
2. Being grown up in Coimbatore, the place where activated carbon is produced from coconut shells which are proven to be not environment friendly and expensive.
3. The founder of Pristine Energia Muthu Kumar wanted to find a better way to produce activated carbon.
4. He then approached the faculty related to the field and shared his idea while doing MTech in IITM.

• What were the initial difficulties? How were they solved?

1. The initial difficulties faced by the founder were forming a good team, and getting the funds.
2. The founder has approached banks to get loans for the funds.
3. He while moving to Ph.D. has made a group of 3-4 people and tried to get funds.
4. The team participated in funding competitions happening in India.
5. has won around 17Lac through competitions like carbon zero challenge, and innovation challenge.
6. The start-up after making a successful prototype has started to work and get investors and

• What is the current problem statement? how has the problem statement evolved with time?

1. The initial problem statement was to find a better way of producing activated carbon.
2. The problem statement has evolved with time to produce more environmentally friendly products from biomass.
3. The start-up is now aiming for the synthesis of hydrogen.

• What are the customer acquisition techniques?