The Indian IoT Start-up Landscape and Challenges

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Is India Ready for the Internet of Things?

The Internet is on the brink of expansion, driven by the explosive growth of smartphones and tablets, and the convergence of multiple trends and technologies. Cisco estimates that the Internet of “connected things” should grow to power 50 billion devices by the year 2020.

According to Machina Research, the global market for IoT will comprise $373 billion in revenue of which India will account for anywhere between $10 billion and $12 billion; Supply Chain is the biggest bucket with more than $8 billion impact, in areas such as Fleet management

Telecoms in both South Korea and the U.S. are aggressively rolling out 4G / LTE services

Despite being the second largest country with respect to mobile usage, the IoT ecosystem is yet to evolve in India

IoT relies on technologies like Bluetooth or NFC which are present only in high-end phones

So What’s Happening on Our Subcontinent?

In India, in particular the problem revolves around connectivity and making sure it’s a good stable connectivity so that end points can talk back to the IT center.

Early Adopters: The ‘big three’ are: the telecom sector, the auto manufacturers and the healthcare sector.

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Filling in the Gaps in the Indian IoT Landscape

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Security and interoperability are later stage risks in the Indian context

Plotting the Path ForwardSolutions Belie Not Just Technology and Business, but also Culture

Smart Cities: Investments in human and social capital will focus on building traditional (transport) and modern (ICT) communication infrastructure which will fuel sustainable economic development and a higher quality of life

Smart Device Opportunities: There is a huge opportunity and a dire need for product startups to achieve success in IoT. India has the knowledge capital and the critical mass in terms of user base to build devices that allow for remote monitoring and adaptation.

Applications & Platforms: There is a huge opportunity for India to become the hub for digital transformation through ways to connect new application, systems and devices to complex and fragile networks.

Focus Areas How To Get There

Solve Connectivity issues: The Internet of Things primarily works or fails based on the effectiveness of the network. It is important to identify and fix issues related to bandwidth and latency.

Resolve Standardization models: India should look at remodeling shared infrastructure to create more measureable and calibrated structures.

Pre-empt Security Concerns: Access to private and location specific data publicly could easily be misused for targeted attacks.

Company Pluggx Labs

Location Bangalore, India

DescriptionInstall a Pluggx Switch which comes with a smartphone app to manage the appliances connected.

Apps for the Home

Pluggx Labs has already installed the device in 50 homes via a dealer and are striking more partnerships. The system will be commercially available from June 2014 (can be pre-ordered). A team of 15 at the moment, Pluggx also raised a seed round from Bangalore based Cube 9 Capital Group.

Company Fin

Location Kochi, Kerala

DescriptionFin is a Tiny Wearable Device for the Thumb as a ring and it will make Palm, Fingers as Numeric Keypad and Gesture Space

Wearable Ring For Wireless

Fin is a Bluetooth enabled device that we can connect to three different digital gadgets like Smartphones, Smart TVs, Automobiles, and Home automation devices providing multiple device compatibility. Fin reads different gestures from your palm and its corresponding values control connected devices.

It uses smart Low Energy Technology such as Bluetooth for Communication with connected devices. Currently up for pre-order.

Company Wisense

Location Bangalore

DescriptionWireless sensor networking development kit (includes both hardware : wireless sensor nodes and sensors) and software for IoT prototyping

Homegrown IoT SDK

WiSense’s low cost basic node with a controller board, RF board and couple of sensors costs less than INR 2500 and the liberal software license policies. WiSense is already working with companies like FORMCEPT and the development kit will be sold on the website. The company is totally bootstrapped at the moment and is looking for funding to build a bigger team and explore other opportunities such as miniaturization of sensor nodes.

Company Transpose

Location Bangalore

DescriptionTranspose has devised an assembly of components to develop economical, portable and intelligent sensors.

Making Sense of Vehicular Data

Transpose has patented its technology. While it already has tried and tested, the final version is to be out by August. The efforts of Transpose have been well recognized by Indian Institute of Human Settlements (IIHS) with which it has signed a MoU. On completion of the project, IIHS intends to give them the necessary grant as per the MoU.

Company Azoi

Location Ahmedabad

DescriptionWello helps users to measure and record their vitals by conveniently sliding onto a smartphone disguised as a phone case.

The Quantified Self

The Wello can sync with accessories such as a Wi-Fi scale and other fitness trackers, and contains a battery that lasts up to two months on a single charge. The accessory also allows multiple users to register their health metrics through the app. The Wello is closed for pre-order now but was available for $199. Azoi plans to launch the product later this year pending approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration.

Company Magnet Works

Location Bangalore

DescriptionCompany helps medium and smaller industries by providing real time dashboards, custom reports and analytic tools to help them improve their business

Affordable Industrial Automation

RedBox, a hardware component product by MagnetWorks, pairs with the sensors and sends it to the MagnetCloud platform. Users can then access that data through any device, analyse it and create a real time interactive dashboard. They can also generate reports and set up SMS alerts. The service also allows equipment suppliers to remotely access the factory’s Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) and troubleshoot problems online.

Company Smartrhomes

Location Bangalore

DescriptionSmartrHomes is a response to solve a real problem of increasing cost of water and utilities

Quantified Home - Water Metering

SmartrWater is made up of WaterOns, Nuclious and the SmartrHomes analytical platform. Each water inlet is fixed with a WaterOn , a smart meter, which is also a wireless node. This creates a wireless mesh network ensuring real time, loss free transmission of data to the Nuclious.

Company Axelta

Location Hyderabad

DescriptionAxelta Osmosis platform enables device and application management for IoT / Machine-to-Machine(M2M) deployments.

Cloud Application Enablement Platform

What Else Do We Need?Industry Academia Partnerships Targeting IoT Challenges in IndiaThe Robert Bosch Centre for Cyber Physical Systems (RBCCPS) at the Indian Institute of Science is advocating a more human-centered view of IoT, which has people’s ownership of their data at the center and does not require lock in to vendors such as Cisco, Microsoft or Google.

Addressing the Hardware Problem65% of India’s hardware is imported, at a cost estimated as the same size of India’s petroleum imports – an alarming prospect indeed for government and industry.

India’s National Policy on Electronics (NPE) aims at investing about US$ 100 billion in the electronics industry by 2020, and providing employment to around 28 million people by 2020. This includes achieving a turnover of US$ 55 billion of chip design and embedded software, US$ 80 billion of exports in the sector, and over 200 EMCs by 2020.

Investments and Financing