July 04, 2023
The national high-tech startup born in Puerto Varas and now installed in Silicon Valley, United States, consolidated its internationalization thanks to its technology based on bubbles as small as a virus that can save water, energy and restore ecosystems. On this path of only six years, Kran won the latest version of a global innovation program promoted by AB InBev Brewery, which groups brands such as Corona, Budweiser, Stella Artois and Becker.
Oranges that last an extra month without being affected by fungus; significant water savings in industrial processes in the mining and food sectors; decontamination of the great Lake Amatitlán in Guatemala; ultra-efficient irrigation of golf courses and park cemetery facilities; the creation of a super ice that lasts longer and is colder to favor the transport of salmon from southern Chile; or the control of nuisance odours in industrial facilities; among many other applications, in addition to some thirty ongoing developments and pilots installed around the world.
The potential of Kran, the Chilean technology startup dedicated to the development of nanobubbles born in Puerto Varas, is almost infinite, and in just six years it is consolidating itself at a global level with its recent arrival in Palo Alto, in the United States, a giant market with enormous opportunities and an indispensable showcase for international consolidation.
The name Kran is not random, nor is it an acronym. It’s the homage that Jaime de la Cruz, restless entrepreneur, lover of frontier science and Selknam mythology, made this people considered extinct by many, who inhabited the confines of the extreme south of Chile, and who remember one of the main mythological ancestors who goes to live in the stars.
“Kran was born from a personal dream of creating a company that had three pillars: that was high-tech, that was at the frontier of science and that was one hundred percent green”says Jaime de la Cruz about his beginnings at the helm of the company, which went from having four employees to 50 in the last two and a half years, with close relationships with important Chilean universities, such as the University of Chile. U. de Concepción, U. Católica de Valparaíso, U. de Antofagasta, U. de Los Andes, Pontificia U. Católica de Chile and DUOC UC, to delve into scientific development focused on the creation of new technologies that help companies meet their sustainability goals with strong positive impacts on the environment.
With their own facilities where they design and assemble their equipment in Puerto Varas, thanks to the support of national investment funds Invexor and Amarena, Kran reached a new milestone with AB InBev Brewery, the world’s largest multinational brewer that brings together brands such as Corona, Budweiser, Stella Artois and Becker, by winning a 100+ Accelerator innovation program in the local and global versions that the company powers. This allowed it to install a pilot in the plant located in Quilicura, to generate considerable water and energy savings, with the possibility of being extended to many other countries where the company operates.
To reach this level, De la Cruz experienced several failures prior to his current success: he emigrated from Santiago to Puerto Varas at the end of the 1990s to execute a real estate project that, however, brought him losses. “There were times when my wife and I didn’t know what we were going to feed our children next week,” he recalls. He then worked for a company supplying the salmon industry, which went bankrupt as a result of the ISA virus crisis. Some time later, he decided to bet on a new salmon enterprise, until he discovered a new motivation: to look for high-tech solutions that would really contribute to companies taking a leap in environmental sustainability. Thus, he came to the science of nanobubbles and founded Kran after a trip to Osaka, Japan, accompanied by the engineer Lucas Magglio, to see in situ the greatest advances that were taking place in the field at a global level.
This technology produces bubbles as small as a virus, to which gases such as air, ozone or oxygen, to name a few, can be introduced, and which give unique properties to the fluid where they are immersed, such as lowering surface tension and improving mass transfer to the medium. Nanobubbles can reach and act where water can’t.
“Everything in Kran is like that. These are dreams that we want to make come true with the help of applied science. We are a meaningful company, which is very attractive to have very young and highly prepared collaborators, Chileans and foreigners. When we open a quota in the company, we receive applications from all over the world,” says De la Cruz.
Kran’s relationship with AB InBev Brewery began with its participation in the first 100+Labs call held in 2021 for national startups, with the technical support of Socialab, where De la Cruz’s team won the water management challenge. After this, they carried out a pilot project at the company’s wastewater treatment plant in Quilicura, with the aim of making aeration more efficient, achieving a 16% saving in energy consumption.
As a result of this experience, Motivated by the AB InBev Brewery team, Kran made the leap to the global version of the 100+ Accelerator program, competing with startups from all over the world and obtaining a fund to generate a plant-wide water saving project in Chile, which is in the process of obtaining results.
Anyone who knows Kran’s path and the Chilean innovation ecosystem closely is José Antonio Alonso, Director of Corporate Affairs and Positive Impact at AB InBev Brewery. “So far we have piloted/tested 13 startups since the start of 100+ Labs in 2020 locally and we want many more. Kran created a very interesting technology for the reduction of water and electricity consumption. It’s very inspiring that they’ve won this program globally, and that it’s now on the radar of our top world leaders.”
Alonso explains that AB InBev’s commitment to innovation and startups stems from the conviction that “we don’t have all the answers and that we have to seek support to improve our production processes while contributing to the environment. We understand that in order to continue existing as a company, we have to move towards a business that has less impact on the environment, benefits communities, improves profitability and provides ourselves with a corporate governance that self-imposes goals that allow us to advance in all these matters. Along the way, we have realized that it is not the large companies that have the best solutions, but that we have seen the effective improvements in the startups, which are very agile and innovative in finding meaningful solutions.”
Matías Rojas, founder of Socialab, ratifies this path towards innovation in which the brewery is embarked: “AB InBev Brewery has created a permanent relationship space with national startups. Beyond the competition, the company was creating an internal muscle, the so-called champions. who effectively support these ventures to make them work.”
With the experience gained over the years at the helm of Kran, JAimé de la Cruz is hopeful that Chile will take the definitive leap into innovation. “I am convinced that the solution to remedy the planet is technology“, he maintains, adding that “Chile has everything to become a power. The human and scientific capital is first-rate for new dreams to emerge, in addition to the transcendental support of companies of the magnitude of AB InBev Brewery and investment funds that believe in what you do.”
José Antonio Alonso’s gaze points in the same direction, as he is convinced that the country is on the verge of making a technological leap to raise a level in its development. “There is a path traveled that we value very much, such as the work that Fundación Chile, Corfo, B Corporations, and universities have been doing. This innovative Chile is at a point of expectation and what it requires is support, like the one we are doing at AB InBev Brewery and other large companies; and that the role of the State is relevant in terms of generating the conditions for innovation to flourish and stimulating the largest companies to provide the space and financing necessary to add value to the country, regardless of the area in which ventures as relevant as Kran are born.”
SOURCE:
Las Tercera