Circolife, a Mumbai-area climate-tech startup, has raised $4.5 million, or about Rs. 40.45 crore, in a pre-Series A funding round led by Bharat Jaisinghani, Joint Managing Director of Polycab India.

The funding matters because Circolife is not simply selling air conditioners. It offers cooling as a subscription, helping businesses use AC units without paying a large amount upfront. For a small restaurant, clinic, salon, or growing office, that can make cooling easier to plan and manage.

What Circolife does

Founded in 2023 by Abhishek Murarka, Tushar Patil, and Devanshu Mishra, Circolife provides energy-efficient air conditioners to commercial customers through a monthly subscription.

The company installs the units and handles repairs, servicing, gas refills, and spare parts during the contract period. Instead of buying several ACs at once and later worrying about maintenance costs, a business pays a regular fee for the service.

Think of a new cafe opening before summer. Buying ten air conditioners could put pressure on its starting budget. With a subscription-based model, the owner may keep more cash available for staff, interiors, stock, or marketing.

Why Circolife raised fresh funding

Air conditioning is a capital-heavy business. Circolife needs money to buy more AC units, install them, maintain them, and build service teams in new locations. That is why startup funding is especially important for this type of company.

According to report, the new capital will be used to expand Circolife’s AC fleet, enter additional markets, strengthen installation and field-service operations, and improve its Internet of Things, or IoT, platform. IoT devices can help the company track equipment performance and spot maintenance issues early.

Circolife reportedly has around 10,000 active subscriptions across five cities. Its goal is to reach 40,000 units within the next 24 months. That is an ambitious jump, and execution will matter as much as the funding itself.

The bigger aim behind the startup

Circolife’s core idea is to make efficient cooling more accessible for businesses while reducing the burden of owning and maintaining equipment. Its model also supports a longer life cycle for AC units, as the company remains responsible for servicing, replacement, and eventual refurbishment or recycling.

For customers, the attraction is straightforward. They get cooling, maintenance support, and more predictable expenses. For Circolife, the opportunity lies in building long-term customer relationships instead of making a one-time equipment sale.

Competition in the cooling-as-a-service space

Smart Joules is one notable name operating in India’s cooling-as-a-service market. It works mainly with larger facilities such as hospitals, hotels, offices, and industrial sites, with a strong focus on energy efficiency.

Circolife appears to be building a wider commercial AC subscription model for businesses that may need individual split AC units or smaller installations. The two companies serve a similar need, but their customer mix and scale of projects can differ.

Key takeaways –

Circolife’s Rs. 40.45 crore pre-Series A round gives it capital to grow its subscription-based cooling business across India. The startup is betting that businesses will increasingly prefer predictable monthly payments over the upfront cost and maintenance burden of owning AC equipment.

Its success will depend on reliable installation, responsive servicing, efficient AC performance, and the ability to expand without losing customer trust. In India’s long and increasingly hot summers, cooling is becoming a serious business need, not merely a comfort.