Her mother's asthma in a steel city. Now 2,000 sensors across 300 cities — and Google's largest climate data partner.
Akanksha Priyadarshini grew up watching India's cities fill with unmeasured, untracked pollution. When her mother developed asthma near Rourkela's steel plant, she decided to build the data layer that India's climate infrastructure was missing. From NIT Rourkela to Bhubaneswar to 300+ cities in two continents — Aurassure is the most consequential climate intelligence company to emerge from Tier-2 India.
Akanksha Priyadarshini
Co-Founder & CEO · Aurassure
The Mother's Asthma and the Data That Didn't Exist
Akanksha Priyadarshini grew up in defence cantonments — clean air, tree-lined roads, the particular calm of military stations scattered across Ludhiana, Pune, and Siliguri. It was only when she enrolled at NIT Rourkela, a city defined by its steel plant as much as its engineering institute, that she understood what absence of environmental data actually meant at human scale.
Her mother developed asthma. Her college friends developed respiratory problems. These were not anomalies — they were a pattern. But there was no data to prove it, no hyperlocal sensor network to show what was happening to the air a kilometre from the plant, no platform to take that data and turn it into an early warning. The monitoring devices that did exist were expensive, immobile, power-hungry, and so sparse they covered virtually nothing. India had a billion people breathing largely unmeasured air.
Priyadarshini declined a Deloitte software engineering offer in 2016 and joined Phoenix Robotix, where she spent years in the unglamorous but essential work of hardware design, supply chain, and field installation. When COVID-19 arrived and Phoenix pivoted toward healthcare, she used the disruption to design Aurassure — not just a monitoring device, but a full-stack climate intelligence system. In May 2022, she co-founded the company in Bhubaneswar with Vamsi Krishna, Raviteja Cherukuri, and Omprakash Patra. "We started with the idea of building a data analysis platform," she said, "where we can use data collected from our hardware devices to help answer the 'what if' questions in disaster management."
Google, the 2,000-Sensor Network and the Tier-2 Bet
The Google partnership was the inflection point that no pitch deck could have planned for. When Google reached out to make Aurassure its largest Air Quality partner for the Air View+ programme, the startup from Bhubaneswar did not have the financing to set up a city-scale sensor network on its own. Google's deployment support changed the trajectory. "We didn't have the financing to set up such a large-scale network ourselves, so their support was crucial," Priyadarshini said.
What emerged from that collaboration was a hyperlocal air quality monitoring system that combined Google's satellite data, Aurassure's IoT ground-truth sensors, and a proprietary AI-physics fusion model capable of forecasting pollution conditions with up to 95% accuracy. The data was immediately useful to a city like Bhubaneswar — and scalable to Chennai, Rajkot, Aurangabad, Delhi, and beyond.
The decision to headquarter in Bhubaneswar, contrary to every piece of startup advice pointing toward Bengaluru or Delhi, turned out to be an advantage. "The approval processes for various compliances are smoother and hiring local talent is easier," Priyadarshini noted. The 40-person company now sets up specialised teams across regions while holding its technical core in Odisha — a structure that makes Aurassure one of the most consequential deep-tech companies to emerge from Tier-2 India. The ₹4 crore seed round from Unicorn India Ventures in 2023 confirmed the institutional conviction: of the 1.4 million air quality devices needed globally, only 3% were operational. Aurassure was building the rest.
Rainmatter, Brazil and the Global South Thesis
By December 2025, the numbers had made the thesis undeniable. 2,000+ sensor nodes. 99% uptime. 200+ cities in India. 100+ cities in Brazil. Early projects in Bangladesh, Africa, and Egypt. 75+ enterprise customers: Google, Tata Realty, Honeywell, Jindal Steel, LTI Mindtree. Annual revenue of ₹8.04 crore in FY2025. Good Air Award 2024. CASCA 2025. FIA Smart Cities Global Start Contest winner.
The ₹25 crore Pre-Series A, led by Rainmatter Capital — Zerodha's investment arm and India's most influential climate-focused VC — arrived on December 16, 2025. Unicorn India Ventures returned. Maithan Alloys, a listed manganese alloys manufacturer, added strategic industrial credibility. Abhinav Singh Negi of Rainmatter articulated the thesis: "We cannot afford to just react to the adverse effects of climate change; we need to take a more proactive approach."
The capital is earmarked for three things: global expansion across Latin America, South Asia, and Africa; next-generation sensor hardware for accuracy and durability; and deeper AI predictive models for parametric insurance, flood risk APIs, and ESG reporting tools. Priyadarshini's stated goal is unambiguous — to be the default climate intelligence platform for the entire Global South by 2027. From a steel-plant city in Odisha to a ₹29 crore climate infrastructure company with sensors on three continents, Aurassure is already most of the way there.
"Choose a problem bold enough to matter for the next 50 years. Build with purpose, stay close to the problem, and let data be your compass. Enterprises today need climate intelligence that is immediate, accurate, and hyperlocal. What was earlier a 'nice to have' has now become an absolute necessity."
— Akanksha Priyadarshini, Co-Founder & CEO, Aurassure (December 2025)
Company Timeline
- 2016–2021
Akanksha Priyadarshini graduates from NIT Rourkela (BTech, 2016), declines a Deloitte offer, and joins Phoenix Robotix as a hardware development engineer. She works across hardware design, supply chain, operations, and field installation — building the technical foundation for what will become Aurassure. Her mother develops asthma near Rourkela's steel plant, sharpening her belief that the absence of environmental data is costing lives.
- May 2022
Aurassure is co-founded in Bhubaneswar by Akanksha Priyadarshini, Vamsi Krishna, Raviteja Cherukuri, and Omprakash Patra. Incubated at FTBI/NIT Rourkela and STPI Bhubaneswar with support from MeitY and Startup Odisha. First revenue: ₹1 crore in year one. The founding product: hyperlocal IoT sensor nodes monitoring PM2.5, NO₂, CO₂, temperature, humidity, and rainfall in real time.
- 2022–23
Google partnership begins — the game-changer. Aurassure becomes Google's largest AQ partner for Air View+, receiving deployment support and co-developing a hyperlocal air quality forecasting system with up to 95% accuracy. Pilots expand from Bhubaneswar to Chennai, Rajkot, Aurangabad, and Navi Mumbai. Enterprise customers: Tata Realty, L&T Realty, Honeywell, P&G, IIT Bombay. Research collaborations: IIT Delhi, Columbia University.
- Sep 2023
₹4 crore seed round from Unicorn India Ventures — the first institutional funding. Bikram Mahajan (Partner, UIV): 'Of the 1.4 million air quality monitoring devices needed globally, only 3% are operational — Aurassure is building the rest.' Funds deployed for data analytics team, product certifications, and sales expansion. Revenue hits ₹5.4 crore in year two — 350%+ YoY growth.
- 2024
Good Air Award 2024 won. FIA Smart Cities Global Start Contest (Asian Edition) winner. Operations expand to Brazil — first international subsidiary. Sensor network crosses 1,000 nodes. Customer count reaches 75+, including Jindal Steel, LTI Mindtree, and ICLEI-partnered government bodies. Team grows to 40 people. 40% QoQ growth. Annual revenue: ₹8.04 crore (FY25).
- Jun 2025
CASCA 2025 recognition. YourStory covers Aurassure as a climate resilience leader. Sensor network at 2,000+ nodes with 99% uptime. 165+ Indian cities covered. Brazil operations at 100+ cities. Early projects in Bangladesh, Africa, and Egypt underway. Aurassure named Google's largest AQ partner for Air View+ globally.
- Dec 2025
₹25 crore Pre-Series A raised (December 16, 2025) — led by Rainmatter Capital (Zerodha) and Unicorn India Ventures, with Maithan Alloys. Total funding: ₹29 crore (~$3.27M). Funds earmarked: global expansion (Latin America, South Asia, Africa), Brazilian subsidiary strengthening, next-generation sensor hardware, and AI predictive model development. Aurassure targets becoming the default climate intelligence backbone of the Global South by 2027.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Aurassure and how is it different from traditional pollution monitoring?
Aurassure is a climate intelligence platform that deploys rugged, hyperlocal IoT sensor nodes to monitor air quality (PM2.5, PM10, NO₂, SO₂, CO₂), weather parameters, and flood conditions in real time. Traditional government monitoring relies on large, expensive, immobile CPCB stations — often one per city. Aurassure deploys dozens to hundreds of nodes per city, generating street-level data processed through proprietary AI-physics fusion models to produce forecasts, alerts, and risk indices. It is sensor-based, AI-powered, and designed as 'sensing-as-a-service' rather than hardware sales — making it continuously valuable to enterprise clients.
Who are Aurassure's co-founders and what is their technical background?
Akanksha Priyadarshini (CEO) is a NIT Rourkela BTech graduate who worked at Phoenix Robotix in hardware design and field deployment before founding Aurassure. Vamsi Krishna is CTO. Raviteja Cherukuri is Chief Hardware Engineer. Omprakash Patra is Chief Embedded System Architect. The leadership team also includes Satyanarayan Bishoyi as COO and Dr. Asutosh Acharya as Chief Climate Scientist. All are based in Bhubaneswar — Aurassure is one of India's most significant deep-tech companies built outside a Tier-1 city.
What sectors does Aurassure serve and what are its products?
Aurassure serves construction and real estate (project delay and heat risk), insurance (parametric trigger APIs), logistics and manufacturing (operational climate risk), healthcare (air quality health advisories), urban governance and smart cities (CPCB compliance, flood management), and ESG reporting for listed companies. Products include Aurassure Infra (outdoor air quality, weather, and GHG monitoring), Aurassure Care (indoor air quality integrated with BMS and air purifiers), and Aurassure Trust (flood monitoring with real-time risk alerts).
What is Aurassure's international expansion strategy?
Aurassure has a fully operational Brazilian subsidiary covering 100+ cities — its most advanced international market. The Pre-Series A capital is focused on consolidating Brazil, entering new markets in South Asia (Bangladesh, Sri Lanka), Africa, and selected G20 markets. New products for international markets include flood risk maps and insurance APIs designed for climate-vulnerable regions. Aurassure's stated goal is to become the default climate resilience infrastructure layer for the Global South by 2027 — a market with far fewer established competitors than the US or European climate tech space.