Keeping up with Climate Tech vol. 7
By Eshaan Mani

On sidewalks, patios, and rooftops, outdoor heaters have become a fixture of modern city life—especially in the post-COVID era. But behind the warm glow of propane flames lies a sobering truth: these systems are wildly inefficient, carbon-intensive, and technologically outdated. Enter Focal—a startup aiming to flip the paradigm by asking a simple question: what if we heated people, not the air around them?

Founded by Raj Tilwa and Rohan Pandya, Focal blends robotics, real-time sensing, and cloud intelligence into a sleek, responsive heating system that delivers warmth directly to individuals, not entire spaces. The result? More comfort, less energy, and a bold rethinking of what outdoor heating should look—and feel—like.

Pictured: Raj Tilwa, cofounder of Focal. Credit: Harvard i-lab.

Origins of Focal: Personal Experiences Drive Innovation

Tilwa and Pandya’s journey began with personal experiences of energy scarcity growing up in India and later attending high school in Singapore. Their move to the United States for college in 2012 exposed them to a different energy landscape: one of abundance, but not necessarily comfort.

“It was the first time we were in a place where there was so much energy available everywhere,” Tilwa said in an interview with the Harvard Technology Review. “Any building we walked into, you could just assume there’s heating, cooling, and comfort. But people still complain that it’s too hot for them, it’s too cold for them. People argue a lot about thermostat temperature differences.”

That dissonance got them thinking on how they can solve this perpetual debate. 

“Comfort is deeply personal, and different people have different needs,” he said. “But we still haven’t figured out how to allow people to communicate exactly what they’re looking for to these systems, and then actually have hardware that can respond.”

And hence Focal was born with the mission to help people, wherever they might be, to get a space to the levels they want to be heated to.

From Al Fresco Dining to Smart Thermal Zones

Focal’s vision found its beachhead market in hospitality, especially post-COVID, when al fresco outdoor dining became mandated. In outdoor dining, bulky propane heaters became ubiquitous. But as Tilwa pointed out, these conventional systems are high energy, bulky load systems that are indiscriminately throwing a bunch of heat and hoping that some of that lands on people,” he said.

In contrast, Focal’s cloud-connected and interactive system combines directional heat with visual sensors. 

“We’re the first software-powered system that’s software-native to begin with. We have visual sensors on board that tell us exactly where people are,” Tilwa explained. “We run a model on the latest robotics edge devices to actually compute where people are and to decide which node should heat which person.”

Smart Systems, Real Savings

Efficiency is core to Focal’s value proposition.

“We’ve used efficiency as a North Star to design our optics and our radiant heat system to deliver comfort while pulling the least amount of power from the wall as possible.”

Savings stem from both hardware and software. While a typical propane heater costs $4–$5 per hour to operate, Focal’s heaters, depending on grid rates and location, cost anywhere from 25 to 40 cents an hour to heat four people.

“We don’t want to heat everyone at high levels if that’s not what they’re looking for,” he noted. “We only heat seats that are occupied.”

Designing for Adoption

Unlike plug-and-play propane models, Focal’s system requires upfront design. But for operators, that’s part of the appeal.

“Part of why our customers love us — and adoption is relatively easy — is that they’ve been using an old heating product for ages and they have a long list of complaints,” Tilwa said. “There’s been very little innovation in propane heaters over the last 50 or so years. So their problems are well documented, and our customers have been waiting for the kind of product that we’re building.”

There’s built-in value for every stakeholder: operators, guests, staff, architects, and developers. 

“You could buy a propane heater and just plug it in. With our system, yes, the design aspect is more involved and advanced, but it’s in the service of never having to think about heating again, never having to argue over the thermostat.”

Focal is working hard to reduce friction and streamline this onboarding process as their next step.

A Policy Boost—but Not a Crutch

State-level policy is helping push the transition. “In certain geographies, the fire department has put restrictions on use of propane heaters,” said Tilwa. “So in those spaces, businesses are actively looking for a solution that is not propane heat.”

Still, policy isn’t the main reason Focal has found success. 

“Our sales are just so focused on operating cost, guest experience, and removing hassle from heating,” he said. “Those are the key drivers propelling us forward.”

Building in the Open

Focal has cycled through three versions of prototypes in just 14 months at an impressive speed.

“We’re still in this pre-product-market-fit stage,” Tilwa said. “So we’re laser focused on value-market fit more than anything else.”

That urgency shaped the company’s ethos, what Tilwa called a “deploy-or-die attitude.”

“We’ve just shipped out our latest version to customers,” he said. “They’re using it and we’re getting real data from patrons.”

A Launchpad of Innovation Ecosystems

From Harvard’s i-lab to Stanford’s TomKat Center, startup ecosystems helped shape Focal’s early stages.

“When I was at the i-lab, it was the first year of company building,” said Tilwa. “Phil, one of the mentors, told us, ‘Just go and sell it. They’re buying heat already.’ That was the starting point of us cultivating this deploy-or-die attitude.”

As the idea matured, Carnegie Mellon’s VentureBridge accelerator helped fuel its early days by providing them with their first capital in the summer of 2022.

“These programs gave us catalytic capital and access to networks of founders, exited founders, investors,” he added. “We were also able to attract Harvard, Stanford, and Carnegie Mellon grads to join Focal as interns—and even full-time.”

Looking Ahead

Focal is gearing up for commercial launch, with a pre-order campaign on the horizon.

“We’re on a very exciting journey,” said Tilwa. “If anyone has their favorite neighborhood restaurant or café or their ski resort they go to all the time, and you would like them to transition to Focal, please spread the word and let them know.”

The company’s path reflects a broader trend in climate tech: building smarter, human-centered solutions that reduce emissions without sacrificing performance.

Correction: An earlier version of this article included an inaccurate listing of the companies that provided Focal with venture funding in 2022. Stanford’s TomKat Center provided funding starting in 2024.