In 2016, during a brutal drought at NIT Calicut, students were surviving on just 10–15 litres of water per day. Among them were Swapnil Shrivastav and Venkatesh RY - two architecture students who decided to fight water scarcity, not just suffer from it. Their idea? Pull water from thin air. Literally.

By 2017, joined by Govinda Balaji and Pardeep Garg, the four friends launched Uravu Labs in Bengaluru. After multiple failed experiments, they discovered a breakthrough - using calcium chloride, a liquid desiccant, to absorb moisture from air, and renewable heat to turn it into clean, drinkable water.

Today, Uravu produces over 1,200 litres of water per day, selling to luxury hotels like The Leela and cafes like Roxie. With a vision to impact 5% of the 844 million people lacking clean water, they aim to scale to 1 lakh litres/day by 2027, all without using groundwater.

They’ve raised $2.3 million, saved over 3.4 lakh litres of groundwater, and even plan to sell tonic water and ginger ale -all made from air. From drought-struck students to global changemakers, Uravu Labs is turning science fiction into everyday sustainability.