Anzen: From POW Prototype to VC Funding
Anzen founders, Preethi Jayakumar and Dhruv Shah, at POW: Park Royal Open Workshop.
Anzen Innovations leveraged POW's makerspace and prototyping facilities to turn their sustainable heating solution from concept to reality, securing funding for their innovative Climate Wall technology.
The Spark
Preethi Jayakumar, a controls and instrumentation engineer, and Dhruv Shah, an industrial designer, first met at UAL while studying for their MAs in Industrial Design. Their collaborative journey began in 2022 when they became finalists in the Stanford Longevity Design Challenge with a passive air-cleaning roof panel designed to improve air quality in Indian slums. This early success highlighted their complementary skills and shared vision for sustainable innovation.
Their professional interests – Preethi's work on converting waste into energy and Dhruv's expertise in designing sustainable spaces – intersected with personal experiences: Dhruv's aunt suffered from pollution-induced nosebleeds, while Preethi lived in a home so damp that mushrooms grew on the walls. These challenges catalyzed their collaboration on workshops with local councils and energy bodies, exploring improved ventilation solutions for council houses.
POW: Where Innovation Takes Shape
The critical turning point came when Dhruv and Preethi decided to build prefabricated walls with integrated heating, ventilation, and cooling systems. They needed a workshop space close to their offices in London where they could experiment, iterate, and bring their vision to life. This led them to POW, where founder Alex recognized the potential of their concept and provided the resources and support they needed.
POW became their innovation laboratory, allowing them to progress from simple woodworked mockups to increasingly complex prototypes. The hands-on environment and fabrication tools at POW enabled them to test, fail, learn, and improve—a process fundamental to their eventual success.
"Our trajectory was proven on first principles by the POW pilot." - Preethi Jayakumar, CTO & Co-Founder, Anzen.
Without POW's facilities and supportive ecosystem, the path from concept to viable product would have been significantly more challenging. The practical experience gained during this critical phase informed all subsequent developments.
The POW Pilot
POW Pilot Blueprint
Anzen successfully installed Climate Wall units in three pods within POW’s EX2 building in Park Royal. The project aimed to solve the heating and ventilation challenges in these timber modular structures (10-20m²) that couldn't be connected to the central gas system.
Three Anzen units were installed within wall cavities, maximizing internal space while providing energy-efficient heating/cooling and improved air quality through ventilation and purification. Installation took only one day per unit once the wall preparations were completed. Performance testing showed impressive results, with rooms heating from 12°C to 21°C in just 30 minutes!
The units operated with a COP of 1.5, providing 50% energy savings compared to conventional electric radiators. Each unit cost approximately £1,333, for a total project cost of £4,000. The system included comprehensive monitoring capabilities with temperature, humidity, air quality, and pressure sensors. Data was logged wirelessly to track performance and develop predictive maintenance algorithms.
Feedback was immensely positive, noting that the heating is more comfortable than "harsh resistive blown heaters."
The POW pilot demonstrated Anzen's innovative solution for efficient climate control in modular structures where traditional HVAC systems aren't feasible.
As they developed their prototypes at POW, Dhruv and Preethi discovered the market for prefabricated walls was too limited. This insight led them to pivot toward creating a self-standing appliance, drawing on their respective experiences at Pluvo (air purifiers for railway stations) and Dyson.
Acceleration and Innovation
In 2023, the team entered Carbon 13, a Cambridge-based accelerator, targeting the larger retrofit market. They simultaneously applied to a Sustainable Ventures program partnered with the Ebico Trust, focusing on fuel-poor communities.
This phase revealed crucial market insights: traditional heat pumps, costing around £11,000, were prohibitively expensive for many homes. Additionally, these systems required specialist installers due to their use of refrigerants like propane, creating a nine-month installation backlog across the UK.
These constraints led the team to explore solid-state technology, specifically thermoelectric Peltier devices. The technical knowledge and practical experience gained during their time at POW enabled them to approach this pivot with confidence and clarity.
The Anzen Climate Wall
Building on their POW prototyping experience, Anzen developed a revolutionary solution: using Peltier Devices and improving on the heating performance further into a large panel that could transport heat in either direction across a wall. The panels, capable of reaching 70°C, required efficient heat sinks and ducting systems to manage heat dissipation. For these challenges, they collaborated with Professor Saffa Riffat at the University of Nottingham.
After multiple physical iterations and simulations, the Anzen Climate Wall was born. A single 2kW panel can heat approximately 20m² and requires only basic installation by a domestic electrician—just two 5cm outlets through an exterior wall. This elegant solution directly addressed the market gaps identified during their research.
Funding Success
The team's journey from POW prototype to market-ready product has attracted significant investor interest. In the first half of their pre-seed funding round, Anzen raised £485,000 from Desai Ventures, Sustainable Ventures, One Planet Capital, and various angel investors. The second half of the round will bring on board additional angels from the UK and the US to fuel Anzen’s growth, the details of which will be disclosed next month.
This investment success stems directly from the solid foundation established during their POW pilot, where they were able to demonstrate and refine their concept in a practical setting.
Future Trajectory
Now a team of six - having hired two engineers, a fractional CCO, and a tech advisor - Anzen is conducting 30-40 pilots this year. These will help them secure certification and improve performance metrics. Their solution addresses a critical need for organizations like Islington Council and government bodies with ambitious net-zero targets but limited time and resources for traditional heat pump installations.
With Anzen Climate Walls taking less than a day to install, they expect their product to be available in major retailers by mid-2026. Their journey exemplifies how POW enables innovators to transform bold ideas into market-ready solutions that address real-world challenges.
Anzen's remarkable path from concept to funded company underscores the vital role that innovation spaces like POW play in nurturing sustainable technology and supporting entrepreneurial vision. Their success story wouldn't have been possible without the initial prototype development and support from the POW community.
POW will be closed from 17th March to 9th May for a major upgrade that will double our floor space.
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