Optimist raises USD 12 million in seed funding led by Accel and Arkam Ventures to build future-ready air conditioning solutions

Founded in 2024 by Ashish Goel, (ex-CEO & co-founder of Urban Ladder), and Pranav Chopra, Optimist is a technology innovator that aims to transform customer’s lives. With deep customer research and understanding of their lifestyle, it is designing and manufacturing cooling solutions specifically for India’s changing needs. The products are built to operate reliably under extreme heat and power constraints.

Ashish Goel, Co-Founder & CEO, Optimist, said: “India has a population of over 1.4 billion people, but less than 130 million have access to real cooling today. That gap is the real problem we are trying to solve. Cooling in India cannot be addressed with products designed for other markets and adapted here. It needs solutions that are designed in India, for India, built for our heat, our homes, our power conditions, and our realities.”

Over the last year, Optimist has invested in innovation and reimagining cooling solutions through its R&D efforts and multiple product testing cycles in real-world environment. The R&D efforts are anchored at Nalanda, its in-house innovation lab in Gurugram. With in-house R&D and manufacturing, the company is able to shorten development cycles, build a product that reduces electricity bills, while easing pressure on electricity grids. This supports the government’s Make in India objective of strengthening domestic manufacturing and technology capabilities.

Prashanth Prakash, Partner at Accel, said: “As cooling demand rises alongside climate pressures, efficient and reliable air conditioning will become critical infrastructure. Optimist is an example of a deep tech consumer start-up which is a combination of in house engineering and manufacturing, along with its focus on real operating conditions, positions it well to build a scalable and differentiated cooling platform for India.”

The company plans to sell its products through a mix of direct-to-consumer channels and exclusive Optimist brand stores, initially targeting residential and small commercial customers. Optimist air conditioners will be available in February'26 in Delhi NCR, Rajasthan, Telangana and Bangalore, followed by expansion in other cities.

Bala Srinivasa, Managing Director at Arkam Ventures said, "Air Conditioner penetration in India is less than 10%. The Optimist team is reimagining how cost effective and efficient cooling can address heat stress impacting hundreds of millions of Indians. Our conviction is based on this team's ability to solve hard engineering problems, while obsessing over customer delight, product design and on-the-ground execution needed to build a category-defining consumer durables company for India."

As extreme heat becomes a structural challenge, Optimist aims to support India’s cooling needs with energy-efficient solutions that will benefit the larger population, for whom air conditioning solutions is still a distant dream.