Indian Innovators (20 page)
There was no looking back after that. In 2012-13, the revenue more than doubled, reaching
13 crore. In 201314, it crossed20 crore.”
Started by four people in their hostel room, Innoz is now a team of 60 people. The service is available with all telecom operators in the country and has 180 million active users. So far, SMS Gyaan has serviced 1.3 billion queries and receives almost 35 million queries a month. That is a daily average of over 1 million queries. Innoz has partnered with Wikipedia, Bing, Wolfram Alpha, Facebook, Twitter, SnapDeal, JustEat, DreamCricket, Carwaale, Zomato, Rotten Tomatoes and several databases that aggregate data on health, transport, sports, music and so on to offer value- added services based on their content and platform. For example, you can now SMS #CRI to 55444 to receive the latest cricket scores, SMS #FB
“We started with the idea of being a mobile-based SMS answer engine, but we are now into all mobile-based web services. Over 10,000 hash tags are available for interacting with the web via SMS.”
Innoz has recently partnered with the Swedish global phone directory service TrueCaller to allow users to look up for information related to a mobile number via SMS. Users can send an SMS to 55444 in the following format: TRACE <10 digit mobile number>, following which they will receive an SMS with information like the person’s name, their service provider, region and service type (GSM or CDMA).
“We have turned every phone into a smartphone and transformed the good old SMS into its new avatar, SMS 2.0.”
In a country of more than a billion people, only about 200 million people have access to a reliable internet connection. On the other hand, there are almost 560 million mobile phone users, of which only about 60 million use smartphones. Thus, this technology has great potential to serve the underserved.
“Almost 60% of our users come from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. More importantly, our users consist of all age groups, which means that many in the older generation, who may not be comfortable using the internet on a computer, can now access internet using a simple SMS.”
Furthermore, for those who are yet to gain access to a reliable internet connection, Innoz provides the only way of connecting to the information expressway.
“Recently, we have started to expand abroad. With this international focus, we have rebranded SMS Gyaan as SmartSMS. We now have a foothold in many African and South Asian countries. We are even looking at the developed countries in North America and the Middle East, where mobile internet is already present in a big way.
Despite the availability of mobile internet in the developed world, the service can still be very useful, because mobile internet can sometimes fail to function for a variety of reasons.
We are now capable of running searches for pictures and videos. The next challenge for us is developing a system that can push ads according to user behavior.”
Innoz is also in talks with handset manufacturers for an inbuilt SMS Gyaan application. This will reduce the service’s dependence on mobile service providers and enable more people to use it. Deepak adds that they have also opened their platform to third-party app developers.
Though the Innoz founders have achieved tremendous success, they have not forgotten their roots. In 2012, they worked with the Kerala government to set up Startup Village, a technology business incubator at Kochi.
Startup Village aims to launch 1,000 technology startups over the next 10 years and hopes to host the next billion- dollar Indian company. It is focused on student start-ups and innovation in information and communication technologies. It is India’s first incubator started with public–private partnership; many telecom and IT companies, in addition to Innoz, have contributed to it.
Deepak serves on the board of Startup Village, and under his aegis, the incubator has pioneered a movement in college campuses in Kerala called “30 Days to Freedom”. This movement aims to convince college authorities to grant 20% relaxation in attendance to student entrepreneurs. So, unlike the Innoz founders, other technological geniuses will hopefully not need to drop out of their degree programs to pursue their dreams.
In order to make up for the lack of quality education in engineering institutions, Startup Village launched a program called Developer 1000 in early 2013 with an aim to churn out 1,000 app developers by the end of the year. The response has been tremendous. So far, about 3,500 programmers have been trained toward excellence in app development. Startup Village has also helped these programmers release more than 200 apps. The incubator also organizes all-expenses-paid trips to Silicon Valley for promising start-ups, so that they can experience the famed innovation and entrepreneurship culture of the Valley.
Innoz is now the biggest recruiter for the college from where its founders could not graduate. Moreover, the professors who once gave them an earful cannot stop praising them.
But this is not the end of their journey; it is just the beginning.
According to a UN survey, only 2.8 billion of the world’s 7 billion people have access to any internet-enabled device. However, 6 billion people have access to mobile phones, of which 5 billion use a simple phone (that is, one that does not support internet connectivity). Thus, by connecting the unconnected, these youngsters have a big opportunity to change the world for good.
For the Innovator in You
“On millions of occasions, people will mock you or simply suggest that quitting would be a better option. In the end, it is your dream, your passion, and thus, your responsibility to not give up and convert your ideas into reality.
Never keep your product in stealth mode for long. Get it out into the hands of your potential users as soon as possible, collect feedback and work on improving the product.
As far as raising funds is concerned, consider yourself a storyteller. You need to have a convincing story and then you need to reach as wide an audience as possible, before you start getting the applause.”
IdeaForge Team: (L to R) Ankit Mehta, Vipul Joshi, Ashish Bhat, Amardeep Singh and Rahul Singh
Netra UAV
Do you remember the scene from the film
3 Idiots
where Rancho (Aamir Khan) flies a camera-fitted “helicopter” into the room of his college-mate (the character named Joy Lobo, played by Ali Fazal, who started with that project in the first place but ran into difficulties with the eccentric Principal), only to find him hanging from the ceiling?
Back from reel to real life, meet the real-life Ranchos; not three, but five idiots – Ankit Mehta, Ashish Bhat, Rahul Singh, Amardeep Singh and Vipul Joshi.
Ankit, Ashish, Rahul and Amardeep completed their engineering education at IIT Bombay and formed a very close bond. However, unlike the protagonists of the movie, they, thankfully, did not get into any trouble with the college administration.
Ankit completed a five-year BTech/MTech dual degree in Mechanical Engineering, specializing in Computer Aided Designing (CAD). He graduated in 2005 and eventually started IdeaForge in 2006 along with Rahul and Ashish, Ankit’s junior in college. Rahul had a Mechanical Engineering degree, while Ashish had graduated in Electrical Engineering. Amardeep joined the company full-time, once he graduated with a dual degree in Aerospace Engineering in 2008. Vipul Joshi, who is Ankit’s childhood friend, has an MBA degree from Switzerland and is a technology enthusiast. He joined the team to support them on the non-technical side of the business.
While the rest of the team was toiling hard to complete a very big order, I spoke to Ankit in detail about the story behind Netra.
Ankit was born in Pali, a small town near Jodhpur in Rajasthan. He was a very inquisitive and creative child, often wondering how a bridge was built or why a dam was needed to produce electricity. On their frequent evening walks, Ankit’s father would narrate stories of great men who had achieved a lot despite lack of resources and adverse circumstances. That motivated Ankit to be an achiever, so that some father, some day, would narrate his story to their offspring.
During his class X, he learned about the IITs and the difficulties of getting admission. Instantly, he decided to tame the JEE beast.
With this aim, he went to Kota after class X to prepare for IIT-JEE. During those years, he immersed himself so much in the sciences that he was ranked among the top 100 at the Chemistry and Physics Olympiads in the country. A selection into IIT followed in the year 2000.
“IIT was nothing like I imagined. It provided a very liberal environment, where one could pursue whatever they wanted to. In my first year, I was actively involved with cricket, dance, dramatics and debating. In the second year, IIT-B’s Mechanical Engineering department launched a robotics competition called Yantriki. The participants were required to make a water-playing robot which would compete in a real pool. That was my first endeavor in putting technology to use. It interested me so much that I started focusing all my energies on it.
I took tutelage under Dr Amarnath, a renowned IIT-B professor in the field of robotics. I used to come up with ideas and then bug him for financial support and guidance.”
Some faculty members initiated an Innovation Cell at IIT-B with the aim to promote the growth of innovation on campus and help innovators with the patenting process and other requirements. Unfortunately, the response from students was low. In late 2001, with Dr Amarnath’s support, Ankit started organizing seminars and workshops through the Innovation Cell, inviting eminent personalities from the field of science and technology. During this time, he got to know Ashish and Rahul really well and found out that they were equally passionate about robotics.
In 2003, the three of them together made a robot to participate in Robocon 2003.
Robocon, short for Robotic Contest, is an annual event organized by the Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) with participation from over 50 countries. It is a two-stage event. In the first stage, teams from various technical universities in each country participate in a national competition. In the second stage, the winners from each country represent their country in the international competition.
Unfortunately, Ankit, Rahul and Ashish failed to win the national competition.
“It was a great learning experience for us. We decided to perfect our skills further and prepare better for next year’s competition,” Ankit says.
Their robot again failed them in 2004. However, they took it in their stride and vowed to come back stronger in the next edition.
In 2005, Ankit was in the final year. The final-year project, along with several other academic and non-academic responsibilities, left him little time to participate actively in the Robocon effort. Ashish and Rahul took it upon themselves and Ankit helped them whenever they required assistance.
Their persistence was rewarded this time. They won the competition in Pune and flew to Beijing to represent India at Robocon 2005.
“It was a mind-blowing experience. There were teams from MIT and several other top schools across the world. It was hard to imagine what they had already implemented with their robots. The design and build quality of their robots was way better than ours and we have no shame in admitting that we could not match them. What we learned there was to change our lives eventually. We came to understand that the quality of design and build were important for product performance; that is, a product is more than just the sum of its parts.”
When Ankit graduated from IIT-B, he was awarded the Institute Technical Special Mention for his contributions in improving the technical scenario at the institute.
Ankit did not participate in the final-year placements; neither did he apply to any foreign university. His vision was to form a company and try to build innovative products.
“Once a friend asked me,
‘Yaar tune
placement
bhi nahin li aur US university ka
backup plan
bhi nahin rakha.
Company
start karna chahta hai, tujhe bilkul darr nahi lagta?
(You didn’t appear for campus placements; nor do you have the backup plan of applying to a US university. You want to start a company; don’t you ever feel scared about your future?)
The next day, I went for an early morning walk around the IIT campus. I was engrossed in thinking what success actually meant; whether it meant money, fame or adulation. And if it is any of these, did it matter if you got it at the age of 25 or 52?
I thought Mozart, by the time he died at the age of 35, immortalized his name in the world of music; but Jane Austen, on the other hand, could not get even a single work published till the age of 35. Does that make Jane Austen any less successful than Mozart? Of course not!
So, I decided I would not be part of any rat race. I would do what makes me happy, irrespective of how much and when the money flows in.”
However, during his last months in college, he did realize that he would require a lot of money and a team of smart people to start a company.
“So far, funding for my projects had come from the institute or corporate sponsors and my friends at IIT had lent a helping hand. However, from now on, they would not be there for support.
So, I decided to take up a job and save for some time. Luckily, I found a job off-campus with ZS Associates, a leading consulting firm. The salary was comparable to the highest offers made on campus that year. I worked with them for the next six months, saving most of my salary.
At the end of six months, I knew I had saved enough to survive comfortably for another six months. So, I quit.
Initially, my parents were disturbed that I had quit a well-paying job, but they knew where my heart lay. So, they did not question my decision much and I went back to Mumbai.
I had done so much work in the technology space over the last five years in college and did not want that to be wasted. I knew no company or even PhD programs would let me work on my ideas. I would need to work on their ideas, whether I liked it or not. Thus, I had to start my own company.”
During college, Ankit had worked on developing a novel mechanical energy storage and release device. This was a power spring, wound in such a way that the energy density of the spring configuration, and thus, its energy storage capacity, was increased significantly. Ankit had a patent for the device and decided to use it to fabricate a mechanical cellphone charger. He believed that there would be a great market for the product in rural India.
He incorporated IdeaForge in 2006 with the help of Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE), the business incubator which provides support to technology- based entrepreneurs at IIT Bombay.
Meanwhile, Ashish and Rahul had also graduated with top honors. Ashish, who also holds the distinction of designing the fastest Micromouse (a robot that solves an unknown given maze) in India, was awarded a Roll of Honour for his technical competence by the Student Gymkhana at IIT Bombay. It was after eight years that somebody had won this honor at the institute.
Instead of joining a top MNC or flying to greener pastures, both Ashish and Rahul joined Ankit at IdeaForge.
Together, they worked on making the mechanical charger a reality. The charger was aesthetically designed, was light and small, and thus, easy to carry around. One minute of rotating the charger handle provided enough charge for 30 minutes of standby time.
They travelled far and wide, to the remotest regions of the country and adopted all methods to sell their product, but the response was less than encouraging.
Through their professors at IIT-B, they got a project, backed by the DRDO, for creating data-logging systems for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). A data-logging system is a piece of hardware that records the flight parameters of an aerial system (such as height, roll angle, air speed and acceleration). This initiated them into aerial vehicles.
They started supplying avionics (electronic systems used in airborne vehicles), and in due course of time, began work on developing their own UAV in association with a DRDO lab.
Rahul already had a great passion for hovercrafts and his experience with flying devices came in handy. Meanwhile, Amardeep graduated with a degree in Aerospace Engineering and joined them full-time, bringing in more expertise in that department. Vipul, who had worked for over a year with ArvinMeritor in Zurich as a Marketing Product Manager, also joined them.
In 2008, they exhibited the first indigenously built UAV at an exposition hosted by the Indian Army and the US Department of Defense.
Being first-timers did not stop them from being adjudged the best entry in the hover category (that is, vertical landing and takeoff category), despite tough competition from 16 products developed at some of the most respected technology universities and companies across the world.
“Not only were we the first to accomplish this in India, our UAV was controlled by the world’s smallest and lightest autopilot (the microprocessor that enables controlling the UAV remotely), which was completely designed and fabricated by us. The UAV segment has very few players across the world and the applications so far have been restricted to military purposes.
Unlike most companies in the UAV space, which procure parts from outside vendors, we are completely vertically integrated. We make all the hardware and software ourselves, including the auto-pilot, air-train, ground communication and control software and the image processing software.”
DRDO helped IdeaForge in several ways, such as in fine-tuning the efficacy and handling of the UAV in the field; understanding the needs of the targeted end-user, so that they could create a more user-friendly product; procuring the required material at a reduced cost through a rate contract; getting the product exhibited in the key defense related exhibitions, thus helping with the sales and so on. DRDO also signed a Technology Transfer memorandum of understanding (MoU) with IdeaForge. The product is often labeled as the DRDO Netra, in recognition of the support received from DRDO. “Association with DRDO also helps in generating positive recognition more easily,” Ankit adds.
“In February 2010, we gave a demo of the UAV to the Defense Minister Shri AK Antony at the DefExpo in Delhi. The Indian Army was already looking to deploy UAVs for stealth operations along borders in difficult areas. The UAV was appreciated by all the concerned dignitaries. Ten prototypes were made and put through various tests, such as temperature (from -10°C to 55°C) and high-altitude tests. After successful trials, the UAV was cleared for production and induction.
Around the same time,
Mumbai Mirror,
a popular local newspaper in Mumbai, did a story on Netra. The actress Dia Mirza came across that article and suggested it to Rajkumar Hirani, the director, writer and editor of
Munnabhai
fame, who was working on
3 Idiots
at that time. Rajkumar Hirani contacted us and asked if he could use the UAV in one of the scenes.
3 Idiots
gave us a lot of visibility and made it easy for us to explain to people about our product. However, the movie also set several other people in India on the path of experimenting with making the UAV.
After
3 Idiots
, several big orders flowed in, largely from the defense forces in India for use in anti-terror, counterinsurgency and border management operations.