Tag: Startup Consultanting

American-Indian IoT Startup 75F targets 100 Crore In India By 2018-19

Award winning 75F Inc is headquartered in Minneapolis and was launched in 2012 by two entrepreneurs of Indian heritage, Deepinder Singh and Pankaj Chawla (who is an Indian citizen and has been overlooking the R&D centre in Bangalore). The startup builds solutions in heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) using Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud computing specifically for commercial buildings. They launched operations in India in August 2016, and hopes to hit rupees 100 crores in revenue by end of fiscal year 2018-2019.

We speak to the founders trying to reach this hefty goal to find out more:

Launching your business in India, what’s your biggest learning about your Indian clients?

Large or small, the Indian business consumer is looking for efficiency and comfort, power in the palm of his hand, at a cost that is affordable.

Tell us more about 75F and its business

75F creates solutions that harness the power of IoT and cloud computing to predict building needs and manage them proactively, making buildings more energy-efficient, automated, smart and comfortable.

We compete with the likes of Honeywell & Johnson Controls. Nevertheless, has attained significant traction in the US market.

We have recently launched our award winning ‘dynamic air flow balancing’ technology in India also known as ‘The Internet of Air’.

Leveraging IoT design philosophy and the power of cloud computing, this technology will achieve what was once thought to be only theoretically possible. That is continuous commissioning or perfect air balancing while driving energy efficiency.

Is 75F coming to India as the second market directly after USA? Or is it
present in other countries already? And why India?

Yes, 75F came to India directly after the USA, setting up its first international office in Bengaluru.

India was the choice of expansion because our R&D team is already present in India – they help develop faster-time-to market solutions and the HVAC solutions designed for India can easily be replicated for the Asian region. In addition, India is a promising market with 10-12% CAGR, so India was a natural first market to expand to.

What is the market size for commercial IoT in US vs. India?

In our area of expertise we estimate the market for intelligent commercial buildings in the US to be approximately 5 billion dollars and in India to be approximately 1 billion dollars.

What are the future plans of 75F in India?

We plan to establish ourselves in a few verticals, for example, IT/ITeS, healthcare and hospitality, in about 4 major metros, in the next 2-3 years.

In addition, new building deployments represent an enormous opportunity with Indian economy appearing to be robust for the medium term growth. And much larger than that are the existing buildings, given that our solution is retrofit-friendly.

There are a few new companies in this sector and all of them only mention Honeywell as a competitor. Could you share your honest opinion on who can become the market leader for commercial IoT automation in India?

While there are many players in the building controls sector, there really are none that provide the entire solution – from HVAC airflow management to building automation, sensors and controls, to big data analytics. No other player in the market offers predictive, proactive controls that are truly based on cloud-computing and IoT. Others use legacy on-premise server architecture with the inherent costs, complexity, maintenance issues and limited life.

Source:http://bwdisrupt.businessworld.in/article/American-Indian-IoT-Startup-75F-targets-100-Crore-In-India-By-2018-19/12-10-2016-106812/

Entrepreneurs head to Uttar Pradesh for the national startup fest

Poll-bound Uttar Pradesh has one more thing coming its way from the Centre — it has emerged as top contender to host the national startup fest.

Originally planned to be held in Hyderabad, the industry department is now considering Uttar Pradesh as its preferred choice, with the industrial city of Kanpur the likely venue.

The government wants to take the startup drive to tier II and tier III cities, where the infrastructure and ecosystem for entrepreneurs still needs to be created.

“We want to strengthen entrepreneurial activity in tier II cities…There should be many more Bengaluru- and Hyderabad-like cities for startups in states like Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh,” said Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman recently.

Uttar Pradesh government officials, too, have stepped up activity to woo startups and budding entrepreneurs.

The date for the event — initially planned for August — is yet to be finalised by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, which is spearheading the Startup India initiative.

“We are working out various details of the event…there has been a delay. It could be held by March 2017 now,” a senior government official said.

DIPP plans to invite over 10,000 startups to the event. The fest is being planned to provide a platform for matchmaking startups and venture capital funds and angel investors, besides discussing key issues facing budding entrepreneurs. The focus will be on sectors such as education, health, manufacturing and agriculture.

The agenda of the grand event will range from funding to mentoring. DIPP proposed to organise a national and an international fest enabling all stakeholders of the startup ecosystem to come together on one platform. The Startup India action plan announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January this year mentioned that such an event would provide national and international visibility to India’s startups.

The government wants to use the national startup fest as a platform to find innovative solutions to on-ground problems. Various government departments have been asked to suggest areas where startups can pitch in with ideas.

The exercise will be undertaken as part of the Grand Challenge in the startup national fest. Problems of social and environmental nature such as water conservation can be posed to startups and they would be given a few months to see if they can come up with solutions.

Source:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/policy-trends/entrepreneurs-head-to-uttar-pradesh-for-the-national-startup-fest/articleshow/54802897.cms

Govt commits Rs 500cr for Narendra Modi’s Startup India vision, launches another set of initiatives

While addressing the media in New Delhi, the Ministry of Science and Technology today announced the launch of the National Initiative for Development and Harnessing Innovations (NIDHI), an umbrella programme which aims to nurture ideas and innovations in the startup ecosystem.

With the intent to speed up the process and also scale, the ministry will be infusing Rs 500 crore into the programme in the next few years. Notably this year, the ministry has received a 450 percent increase in allocation — Rs 180 crore more — to drive startup initiatives.

NIDHI and other initiatives:
NIDHI focuses on building a seamless entrepreneurial ecosystem, especially by making a positive impact on socio-economic development. The programme aims to provide technological solutions as well as create new avenues for wealth and job creation.

PRAYAS (Promoting and Accelerating Young and Aspiring Innovators & Startups), launched last week, is one of the components of NIDHI. The idea is to encourage innovators by providing access to the Fabrication Laboratory as well as a grant of up to Rs10 lakh. Additionally, there is the Seed Support System, providing up to Rs 1 crore per startup and implemented through technology business incubators.

The key stakeholders of the newly launched programme include various departments and ministries of the central government, state governments, academic and R & D institutions, mentors, financial institutions, angel investors, venture capitalists, industry champions, and private sectors.

Till now, the department has launched more than 100 technology business incubators in academic and R & D institutions which include IITs, IIMs, NITs, and other institutions. Every incubator focuses on a technology domain, and all of them combined house more than 2,000 startups and offer a total incubation space of approximately seven lakh sqft.

Additionally, six more centres of excellence will be opened in SINE–IIT Bombay, Venture Center–NCL Pune, CIIE–IIM Ahmedabad etc and 14 Technology Business Incubators which include IIT Patna and Mizoram University etc. 10 more incubators will be supplemented with Seed Support Systems which include Startup Oasis–Jaipur, Amrita TBI–Kollam, Venture Center, NCL–Pune etc and establish a Research Park at IIT Gandhinagar .

A variety of other new programmes including a fellowship programme for entrepreneurs i.e. Entrepreneurs in Residence, scaling up of startups through the accelerator programme and also to boost women empowerment through entrepreneurship, has been launched.

Along with all these initiatives, the department has also partnered with corporates like Intel, Lockheed Martin, Texas Instruments and Boeing as well as the Department of Higher Education, MHRD to establish research parks and startup centres.

Startup India:

All these initiatives have been launched in tune with Modi’s Startup India vision. A number of initiatives were launched after the announcement of ‘Startup India’. Recently, the government had also issued a directive to all ministries stating that all startups will now be exempted from the prior experience criteria in public procurement. Also, the government had mandated that the central government departments and ministries, along with its central PSUs, procure at least 20 percent of their purchases from micro and small enterprises, starting from April 1, 2015.

Though countless initiatives have been launched, whether entrepreneurship in the country receives a real boost remains to be seen.

Source : https://yourstory.com/2016/09/govt-invest-500cr-startups/

Start Up India

Startups now play a key role in defining new age business models, creating newer avenues and generating employment making the space important to watch.

The spirit of entrepreneurship is changing the way India was looked at a few years ago. With startups in the whirl of the winds of change, using technology as an enabler  India seems poised to be a star among the world’s emerging economies. After decades of slow growth and government control, India’s young entrepreneurs have opportunities presented by new policies and disruptive technologies. With over 4,200 technology startups and many more emerging each day, India is the third largest hub for startups globally, and could be the largest one day. The entrepreneurship culture in India is not just paving the way for the future, it is a step towards a great business ecosystem.

In my opinion, it takes a lot of courage from being a job seeker to becoming a job creator but the promise of wealth in the long run, freedom to choose own path, doing things one is deeply passionate about and finding fulfilment are major drivers. When I look back at my decision to quit my job, I recall that I always had entrepreneurial ambitions so giving up the relative stability of my job was actually not a big deal. I think what made the decision easier was the fact that I was convinced that this was the right time to try my hand at entrepreneurship and that after this it would only become more difficult to take the plunge. Today, the scope and variety of self-generated work is unlimited.

Startups now play a key role in defining new age business models, creating newer avenues and generating employment making the space important to watch. Opportunities in various sectors and lack of solutions in some, have created new business prospects and are driving young people to pursue their ideas and passions. India is still a tough place to be an entrepreneur in. Entrepreneurs should be prepared for early issues, such as starting problems, funding and having the right team in place. In our journey too, we faced funding and market-related challenges. Our early investors withdrew after half the promised funding and the travel sector itself was impacted with crises like 9/11 and SARS. Fortunately, the core team was tightly-knit with shared values and vision, which helped us tide over some really tough times. Conviction is truly half the game won.

Startups also face various infrastructural challenges which hinder the business setup and take up a lot of crucial time. Infrastructure like easy availability of plug-and-play office space, easy access for staff via public transport, high speed Internet, electricity, security for women leaving office at late hours are some of the other challenges that startups face.

These issues, while seemingly small, consume a lot of time which an entrepreneur would have otherwise spent on aspects that are core to the business. Effective solutions to counter such challenges will go a long way in helping startups bring efficiencies to their businesses.

Plan your fund-raising right. A stint with the corporate world before starting your own firm would be beneficial and would provide the right amount of exposure and foundation. Always keep a buffer of cash or line of credit you can dip into when times are tough. Get the team right — it is the single most important determinant for success. Everything else can, and will change! Build a healthy and honest culture.

Last, but most important, focus on solving real customer problems, rather than be fixated on an exit. An entrepreneur in India needs the patience of a marathon runner, along with the agility of a gymnast!

Source : http://businessworld.in/article/Start-Up-India/07-09-2016-105327/