Kran, the Chilean startup initially based in Puerto Varas and later established in Silicon Valley, United States, achieved its expansion internationally thanks to its nanobubble technology comparable in size to a virus.
These nanobubbles can save water and energy and contribute to ecosystem restoration.
Within six years, Kran, as the startup is called, secured first place in the most recent edition of a global innovation program supported by AB InBev Brewery, a conglomerate that includes brands like Corona, Budweiser, Stella Artois, and Becker.
Kran’s technology has demonstrated various significant applications, such as extending the shelf life of oranges without being affected by fungus for an additional month, reducing water usage in industrial sectors like mining or food, decontaminating Lake Amatitlán in Guatemala, and improving irrigation efficiency in golf courses or cemeteries.
Moreover, they have developed more durable and cold super ice to facilitate the transportation of salmon from southern Chile and control unpleasant odors in industrial facilities, among many other applications.
Kran has approximately 30 ongoing projects and pilots installed in different locations worldwide.
The startup’s name, Kran, is a tribute to the Selknam culture, an extinct people who inhabited the southernmost confines of Chile.
The company has experienced remarkable growth, going from four collaborators to 50 in the last two and a half years, establishing partnerships with prominent Chilean universities to advance scientific development.
Furthermore, it is creating innovative technologies that promote business sustainability with positive environmental impacts.
With their design and assembly facilities in Puerto Varas, supported by investments from national funds like Invexor and Amarena, Kran won an innovation program, 100+ Accelerator, by AB InBev Brewery locally and globally.
This helped in implementing a pilot in a plant in Quilicura, generating notable water and energy savings, with prospects to expand this technology to many other countries where the company operates.
Kran: A Success Story
Kran’s founder, Jaime de la Cruz, faced several failures in previous ventures before achieving current success.
From his move from Santiago to Puerto Varas in the 1990s to execute a real estate project that resulted in financial losses to his experience in a company supplying the salmon industry that went bankrupt due to the ISA virus crisis.
However, these challenges led him to seek advanced technological solutions that contribute to the environmental sustainability of companies.
This is how he delved into the science of nanobubbles and founded Kran after a trip to Osaka, Japan, where he witnessed the most significant advancements in this field globally.
This technology, which generates tiny bubbles the size of a virus that can contain gases like air, ozone, or oxygen, imparts unique properties to the fluid they are in, improving mass transfer and reducing surface tension. The nanobubbles can reach and act in places where water cannot.
