Air conditioning startup Optimist, founded by Urban Ladder cofounder Ashish Goel, has raised $12 million in a funding round led by Accel and Arkam Ventures.
In addition, the round attracted participation from Sparrow Capital and several prominent angel investors, including Ather Energy founders Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain, along with Bombay Shaving Company founder Shantanu Deshpande, among others.
The company plans to deploy the newly raised capital toward research and development, go-to-market expansion, strengthening its retail service network, and scaling up manufacturing capacity.
“With increasing heat stress, current air conditioners are neither designed for the changing climate nor built with the Indian consumer in mind,” Goel said.
Founded in 2024 by Ashish Goel and Pranav Chopra, the Gurugram-based consumer brand designs and manufactures air conditioners specifically tailored to Indian weather conditions and usage patterns.
“The two biggest outcomes we have focused on with our AC are delivering high-grade cooling and making it as energy-efficient as possible,” Goel said.
Going forward, Optimist will sell its products through a direct-to-consumer (D2C) platform as well as exclusive brand stores. The startup plans to launch its products next month across Delhi NCR, Rajasthan, Telangana, and Bengaluru before expanding into additional cities.
“Customers are not buying a product for just this year. Everyone knows it’s getting warmer. So, when a heatwave worse than 2024 hits, we need to be ready with a better product. And that’s what we’re bringing to the market,” Goel added.
Previously, Goel co-founded online furniture retailer Urban Ladder, which Reliance Industries acquired in 2020. At the time, Reliance Retail Ventures purchased a 96 percent stake for Rs 182 crore in an all-cash transaction, a deal widely viewed as a distress sale amid rising competition from large e-commerce players such as Amazon and Flipkart, along with an influx of niche vertical e-commerce companies.
Commenting on the investment, Prashanth Prakash, Partner at Accel, said, “As cooling demand rises alongside climate pressures, efficient and reliable air conditioning will become critical infrastructure.”
Similarly, Bala Srinivasa, Managing Director at Arkam Ventures, said, “The Optimist team is reimagining how cost-effective and efficient cooling can address heat stress impacting hundreds of millions of Indians.”
Optimist is positioning itself at the intersection of climate resilience, energy efficiency, and consumer-centric design. Backed by marquee investors and led by a seasoned founder, the company aims to redefine air conditioning for India’s warming climate while addressing low penetration through innovation, manufacturing scale, and a focused go-to-market strategy.
