In this series we interview impact startups pitching at the pitch stage of the Impact Startup Fest. Karbe is one of them! Want to hear their story live? Register now!
Startup Name: Karbe
Develops: environment friendly car technology
Founder: Adriana Carmona
Meet Adriana Carmona from Karbe
Adriana is originally from Mexico. She has a bachelor degree in Organizational psychology, loves to travel and specially get involved and experience the different cultures by living in different countries.
“I believe if everyone would contribute with a grain of sand we could make drastic changes to improve the world.”
Environment friendly car technology
Karbe is a CleanTech startup that aims to have a huge environmental impact by offering a technology that makes driving your vehicle not only cheaper but also friendlier to the environment.
Pollution in Mexico
“The idea of Karbe was born in 2010 in México, with my father, a mechanical engineer, and his two industrial engineers colleagues. Mexico city is one of the most polluted cities in the world and is not the only one. They refuse to accept the idea that there cannot be a solution to reduce greenhouse gases and consequently more cities will suffer the same fate. Therefore, joining forces they started a project to develop a technology that is able to reduce air pollution. After more than 50 prototypes, hundreds of tests and more than five years of research and development, they were able to develop the “OPC” a fuel optimization system that is able to extract more energy from fossil fuels than currently possible. Giving more power to the engine and therefore resulting in a 10 %-15% fuel savings and hence reducing the greenhouse emissions.”
Pilots
“When the first working prototype was ready, they started running pilots with transportation companies in México. However when trying to commercialize the product, they ran into several obstacles, which hindered the further development of the technology. The first obstacle was that Mexico is not an early adopter of new technologies and does not have extensive CleanTech initiatives. Moreover, Mexico has a petrol monopoly. Hence, 15% fuel savings represent losses for the petrol monopoly.”
Move to Europe
In 2015, after finishing my bachelor, Aaron and Adriana joined the team, since they believe and embrace the vision of Adriana’s father. After evaluating the possible market, they decided to reestablish in Europe, since companies, the government and the population in general is not only worried and conscious about the environment but also actively looking to adopt new technologies and develop innovative products to reduce the damage we are causing to our environment.
“Environmental pollution is one of the biggest problems the world is facing and it is time to do something.”
Obstacles to overcome
As is normal, Karbe has also overcome several obstacles in the way. “For example, the regulations in Europe are stricter and it is necessary to have certifications in order to commercialize, and we don’t have the budget nor the means to pay for this. However, these obstacles make us more courageous to keep going, finding different paths. We have been really lucky in finding a lot of people willing to help, a lot of programs and helps for startups and most important a big startup community in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and growing in The Hague that have been essential.”
Finally a BV
Finally, the 29th of April of this year, the company was able to incorporate as a B.V. company in order to start pilots and the commercialization of our technology. Right now Karbe is in talks with large transportation and logistic companies in the Netherlands, in order to run pilots and let them test the technology and see the benefits for themselves.
“After many struggles, we are really proud that finally Karbe seems to be alive. A lot of people are finding out about our story and want to collaborate or help us. We are a team of 5 people, only 2 of us working fulltime in Europe and it seems we are going in the right way.”
Environmental impact
“Since we are an upcoming company and we still have a long way to walk, we will start by targeting logistic, transportation and any company with a fleet of more than 20 vehicles. However, our vision is to be able to offer our solution to every single vehicle owner and therefore have a huge environmental impact worldwide.”
Conservative industry
“The industry that we are trying to penetrate is very conservative. For example for the OEM’s to implement a change it’s needed 5 to 10 years. Also the most important market barrier to overcome is the skepticism of fuel saving technologies. It is believed that fuel saving technologies damage the engine or have a negative effect on emissions. Nevertheless, we have been developing this technology for more than five years and we can assure that we are not damaging the engine, but in fact enhancing the performance through a more optimized fuel burning process with less residues.”
Karbe ‘her’ advise to other startups
“Sometimes might seems that the path is too long, with to many obstacles in the way looking almost impossible to keep going. However, if you are able to gather strength and energy to fight for what you believe, even the biggest tornado will not be a problem to face. Just remember after every storm there is a period of calm.”
Support Karbe!
“We just started a long journey, and we know is not possible to do this alone. It is extremely necessary to have people who can support and help in the areas where we lack of experience, to have some followers, people that believe in us, to have mentors. Learn from other entrepreneurs who have gone through similar process. Therefore, we would like to ask for the support of the people.”
Contact Karbe
You can drop an email adriana@karbe.co, aaron@karbe.co and also visit the webpage: www.karbe.co
The post Karbe; developer of environment friendly car technology appeared first on Impact City The Hague Innovators.