E-Paper
IoT stars in global success of local firms
Pune: Most of us are using wearable devices, fitness trackers and seeking information or entertainment by instructing Alexa and Google with voice commands
Pune: Most of us are using wearable devices, fitness trackers and seeking information or entertainment by instructing Alexa and Google with voice commands. Several such consumer and smart products are applications of Internet of Things (IoT) which will soon enable connected cars and home appliances in our day-to-day lives. Besides this consumer side, IoT has assumed much more significance in the enterprise domain.
IoT startups are witnessing a surge in demand and investments in both consumer and enterprise domains. Scope for IoT startups is also huge in public sector where smart city projects are being implemented. There is a great opportunity for startups to explore the tremendous applications in the smart city ecosystem and program.
The Centre for Industry 4.0 in collaboration with ministry of heavy industries has been set up at Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU). Pune is a manufacturing and automotive industry hub and a big advantage for the city is that there are a lot of small companies building software for industrial sector.
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Founders’ Say
Expect a rapid push in IoT innovations in Pune
Pune as a city has immense potential to become the focal point for the IoT revolution in India. We have a thriving ecosystem of both IoT and IT solution providers in our city. With the advent of VC firms like Pentathlon Ventures setting their base in Pune, we can expect a rapid push towards the innovations in the space of IoT in this region.
The city has already produced some world-class Industrial IoT companies. Pune is an industrial powerhouse and a preferred destination for leading automotive manufacturers as well as global IT companies.
Pune being at the crossroads between the automotive and the IT industry allows access to a wide talent pool with a blend of skill sets from hardware and software space. Access to this talent pool is quintessential to build cutting-edge IoT products that can excel globally.
We have a multi-fold plan to invest towards infinite uptime’s growth trajectory and achieve higher benchmarks for customer satisfaction and value delivery. After our latest funding round, we plan to hire and build a team to drive our enterprise sales and expand our global footprint. We are also optimising our sales franchise model for higher performance and value. At the same time, we will invest deeper within the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) relationships.
Raunak Bhinge, founder, Infinite Uptime
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International clients account for more than 50% of our business
IoT is a big domain and has applications everywhere. There is a big surge in the industrial IoT segment – the smart factories and other digital initiatives in the enterprise domain. On the consumer side, personal entertainment and healthcare wearable devices in particular are witnessing a wave and a lot more is happening on the international level on the smart products’ front.
Investments in IoT startups continue to be in mix. It is recognised as a growth area. On the national level, the industrial segment is getting more investment. Singapore and US venture capital firms and Indian investors are keen in funding enterprise domain IoT startups. But the depth is less in consumer side.
Altizon has now gone global. Our international clients account for more than 50 per cent of our business now. We have got good investors like TVS Digital who are helping us grow as a company. Altizon has also got product recognition in the global market. Altizon has been recognised by Gartner in the 2020 Magic Quadrant for Industrial IoT platforms. We have been listed by Gartner for the last three consecutive years.
Vinay Nathan, co-founder and CEO, Altizon Systems
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Investors’ Say
Number of investors is bullish on IoT growth trends
IoT enables us to get data about the physical world, which was not possible earlier. IoT essentially is built on the fact that sensors are making the physical world come alive. When this happens, and we have all latitude-longitude data, temperature data, speed data or whatever data which we never had before now we have new generation of companies, applications in technologies that are building to turn this data into insight.
We are honestly seeing only the first generation of this in IoT. For past several years, we had Google and Facebook tracking the online data at a level of granularity. Imagine what could happen when the physical world comes alive at this level of granularity. The real-time information of the physical world around us and what it can do to companies, individuals, governments etc is the most exciting part of IoT. Number of investors is bullish on these trends. We will see a lot more, a completely new set of companies in this decade.
Pune has seen a lot of growth in SaaS (software as a service) recently. The manufacturing ecosystem being so strong here is a great driver for new generation IoT and sensor driven companies in Pune. The ecosystem in Pune is developing fast and it will continue to evolve as more early-stage investors keep investing in companies.
Vaibhav Domkundwar, CEO, Better Capital
Pune has market and talent pool, lacks funding infra
Pune has a fairly large number of manufacturing units and a large IT talent pool. A lot of investment is happening in the enterprise domain of IoT especially in the automotive, pharma and food-tech companies. Pune has the market and talent pool, but lacks the funding infrastructure. The state government can play an active role in incentivising startups in cities like Pune.
Shashank Deshpande, managing partner, Pentathlon Ventures
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Mentor Speak
IoT startups have huge scope in smart city projects
Due to the shutdown during Covid-19 outbreak, companies have realised that there is no alternative to going digital, including in the core manufacturing activities. Companies are upgrading to industry 4.0. Earlier IoT was a choice, but it has become a “must have” thing for companies. Our role is to educate and prepare a roadmap for these companies.
Startups have a huge scope in the smart city projects too. They need to understand the landscape to successfully navigate it. Public authorities are now open to talk to innovators and startups and understand how they can solve the problems.
Large companies have nurtured the startup ecosystem very well in cities like Bengaluru. There are a lot more accelerator programs and avenues to showcase products there. This is lacking in Pune.
Sujata Tilak, director of smart manufacturing and IIoT division, International Society of Automation
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Pune-based IoT startups, companies
CarIQ (A Varroc company), Balewadi
•Founded in 2013 by Hrishikesh Nene and Sagar Apte
•Acquired in 2019 by auto component manufacturer Varroc Engineering Ltd
•CarIQ is an integrated connected vehicle solution provider to original equipment manufacturer, fleet owners and insurance companies.
•CarIQ can help infrastructure providers and city planners to take maximum advantage of Internet of Things.
Greenovative Energy Solutions (Greenovative Energy Pvt Ltd), Baner
•Founded in January 2011 by Vinit Kulkarni and Harshal Samdani
•Privately funded
•Selected as winner of Maharashtra Start-up Week held in June 2018
•Selected through Emerge-X in Microsoft’s initiative “Highway to a Hundred Unicorns”
•Provides eco-friendly energy management solutions like monitoring energy usage across industrial, commercial, institutional and infrastructural facilities.
Infinite Uptime (Infinite Uptime India Pvt Ltd), Aundh
•Founded in 2015 by Raunak Bhinge
•The industrial internet platform that automates predictive maintenance for industrial machines, provides an all-in-one industrial solution with hardware, cloud analytics, and control software to monitor equipment, diagnose problems, and drive smart decision making.
•Raised $5.15 million in Series B funding in December 2020
ShopWorx (Entrib Analytics Technology Pvt Ltd), Baner
•Founded in 2011 by Kiran Nataraj and Swapnil Amritkar
•ShopWorx is an end-to-end solution for manufacturing shop-floor management and analytics. It helps companies digitise day-to-day manufacturing processes, simplify human interactions and deliver actionable insights to improve shop floor visibility and performance.
Iobot Technologies India Private Limited, Wakad
•Founded in 2016 by Pranav Naiknavare and Akshay Ghadage
•An Industrial IoT Platform with customisable input data channels, data storage and analytics options in single package
IOTLYNX Technologies Pvt Ltd, Balewadi
•Founded in June 2016 by Rahul Dhoot, Shitalkumar Panse and Shardul Rao
•Providing solutions based on the Connect, Collect and Consume model; from sensors, to connectivity to web/mobile apps for monitoring, alerting, reporting and analytics of connected devices or “Things”.
Apollo, (Helios IoT Systems – subsidiary of Pratiti Technologies), NCL Innovation Park, Pashan
•Founded in 2017 by Nitin Tappe and Keyur Gandhi
•Apollo is providing energy analytics solutions and empowers digital twin technology revolution in renewable energy companies.
•Helios IoT is a part of Startup India program since January 2018
iControlify Technologies, Pashan
•Founded in 2016 by Aditya Joshi and Tushar Waghulde
•Inspired by “Make In India” and “Start Up India” programs, iControlify Technologies provides services throughout the life cycle of projects starting with assessment, design, development, testing/validation, deployment to maintenance and support.
Aeron Systems Private Limited, Balewadi
•Founded in 2008 by Abhijit Bokil and Ashvani Shukla
•Aeron Systems is an avionics system and IoT hardware manufacturer. It is the first exporter of navigation products in India with exports to over 30 countries.
•Offers a wide range of products in Aerospace, Defence, Automotive, Renewable Energy and Industrial sectors.
Devtech M2M Limited, Viman Nagar
•Founded in 2012 by Vinod Jadhav and Vishal Jadhav
•Devtech M2M Limited is a cutting edge technology and R&D driven company in the area of energy savings and efficiency, smart city enabling devices and Internet of Things (IoT) with R&D centre and manufacturing unit in Pune.
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Centre for Industry 4.0 (C4i4) Lab, Savitribai Phule Pune University
C4i4 Lab Pune is a section 8 company set up under SAMARTH (Smart Automated Manufacturing and Rapid Transformation Hub) Udyog, a national initiative of Government of India to promote adoption of Industry 4.0 by the industry.
Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) Research Park Foundation and C4i4 Lab Pune through a MOU has set up Industry 4.0 Experience Centre at SPPU Campus. As per the MoU, technology training is provided free of cost to Pune University professors and the centre offers one-year fellowships to two postgraduate or PhD students of the university.
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Statistics: IoT startups
•India – 2226 (949 - DPIIT recognised)
•Maharashtra – 400 (180- DPIIT recognised)
•Pune – 150 (67- DPIIT recognised)
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Other news
Pune startups welcome union budget
Pune: Founders and other stakeholders from the Pune startup ecosystem welcomed the steps announced by Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her budget speech, but also stated that much more was expected from the government.
Vishwas Mahajan, chairman of startups and incubation committee of MCCIA said, “The startup, MSME sector was expecting multiple fiscal initiatives from the budget. Some of these were ESOP taxation, angel tax, allowing institutional investors like LIC to invest in startups, GST reverse charge, removal of capital gains tax for new venture investments like in US or UK, waiver of surcharge on capital gains from startup investments etc. The residency requirements reduced to 120 days means that our NRI brain trust can more easily set up companies here.”
ExtraaEdge co-founder Abhishek Ballabh said, “The budget brings quite a few good news for startups and small business. Tax holiday exemption and capital gains exemption is a much-needed relief post pandemic. There have been many steps taken by the government to help startups, which include broadening the definition of start-ups, simplifying regulations, providing income tax exemptions and setting up a ₹10,000 crore Fund of Funds run by SIDBI. Govt Start-up India Seed Scheme may also become a strong investment alternative, provided disbursement and allocation happens swiftly and regularly like a private fund. This will be a much-needed respite for working capital and growth needs of early-stage firms. The allocation of ₹5000 crore towards R & D is one of the highlights of this budget and can be committed to strengthening EdTech platforms and building a strong digital infrastructure for education.”
FITTR founder Jitendra Chouksey said, “This year’s Union Budget has a strong focus on healthcare with increased spending. The budget has given due importance to the startup segment as well. The extension of tax holiday on revenue as well as investment was much needed during these challenging times. This will further foster the growth of startups in India.”
