16 December 2018, Bengaluru: MINION LABS:
Energy conservation not only reduces overall costing of any industry but also helps the nation thrive. Inspite of regular requirements of energy for operations how could energy utilisation be more effective. To understand this, the team must analyse the source, utility and efficiency.
Now let us see how MINION LABS, a Bengaluru based company is addressing the issue. In an exclusive chat with Way2World, the icon of the day Gokul Shrinivas briefs about their journey. An interesting exclusive for our readers!!
Tell us something about MINION LABS:
MINION LABS helps businesses to reduce their electricity costs and improve their productivity by providing real-time device level electricity consumption insights using a smart energy device delivered through its Analytical platform.
Normally, Businesses need a solution which provides insights into their energy consumption pattern to make informed decisions to reduce their energy consumption. And that’s the area addressed by our organisation.
Insights about your journey and recognition:
Since a year of incorporation, we have developed the product from scratch, validated the PoC by piloting and generated consolidated revenue of 10K USD. In one year, we have received 16 International awards from PMO Modi, President Pranab Mukherjee, Crown prince of Dubai, World Economic Forum, Ministries, Governments from China, Russia and Singapore and more..!
We have two partners signed up – Schneider Electric – Service Vendor and Arrow Electronics – Manufacturing Partner. We are a team of 7 minions with 5+ decades of cumulative experience from Google, Intel, CloudEra, KPMG, Amazon, Robert Bosch in technical and marketing expertise.
We have also received purchase orders from Saudi Aramco – World’s largest ONGC, Oyo room hotel chain and 5+ corporate currently.
Please tell us about your Products and technology:
MINION a hand sized energy auditing device with much easier installations has the ability to analyse this data for valuable actionable insights with non-intrusive energy management solution. MINION senses each and every appliances, devices and tools turning ON and OFF inside the building and gives you a comprehensive report on predictive analytics and maintenance without burning a hole in your pocket.
MINION is based on a machine learning approach that uses automation to train its state-of-the-art algorithm. The algorithm captures voltage and energy signatures at micro second speed to identify the individual assets used and study patterns of their consumption. It is powered by more than 10 million plus data points, a database of over 10,000 hours of energy signatures and currently monitors more than 1 Lakh assets in real time.
With this, the algorithm is able to give accurate at 98.24% accuracy level and rapid analysis of multiple energy signatures at any given point. Going a step further our algorithm can even identify the power source of the device whether it’s a power grid, diesel generator or a green energy source.
Energy management solution enables energy transparency, energy efficiency up to 30% savings, predictive maintenance and asset health monitoring and ensures safety through recognition of any anomalies like high & low voltages and power fluctuations.
What are the advantages of using MINIONs:
Our basic advantages are:
- There is no need of device level sensors to get device level electricity consumption.
- Three steps Install – A Layman can install it as minion is plug & play.
- No Plugins or Software needed, just login with a browser & start tracking. The solution is suitable for all kind of retail facilities & Entertainment Malls, hotels & restaurants, small and medium enterprises SMEs, hospitals, IT/BPO’s, Government Buildings, banks, Automobile & Logistics, Energy Utilities, individual homes and housing communities or any other industry for the monitoring of machinery. Being Hardware independent, it can also be applied to any existing energy monitoring device.
What is the market fit design:
In addition to reducing the environmental footprint, smart energy monitoring systems today should reduce operating costs, provide insights on energy consumption and manage load distribution.
Energy monitoring usually involves captures from the overall energy consumption of a facility or consumption of defined areas or recording the individual energy consumption of each device. All of this would mean installation of multiple energy meters with complex wiring and intrusions.
What if you could introduce a single intelligent energy monitoring system that seamlessly gathers individual energy signatures of various assets and devices?
What are your future plans:
Going forward, we need to develop 3 phase device of MINION, Professional UI/UX of the SaaS dashboard, Mobile Apps for the product, Certifications and Compliance for the hardware device and marketing. For this, we require $300K USD as seed fund for 12 months.
Was it a cakewalk and your advice to young aspirants:
‘As a founder, I have seen more than 500+ rejections – be it Job, sales pitch rejection, investment rejection, friends and family – never say die, keep pushing with hard work, definitely it shall bear fruit,’ claims Gokul Shrinivas. He further added, ‘never give up – always believe in your skills.’
About the Founder:
Back in 2016, Gokul Shrinivas ended up being an Ethical hacker and Software Engineer at Amazon India with high salary package through Hackathon after immense struggle, as he was rejected in 453 companies for scoring low percentile in 10th.
He never expected that an accident at 2010 while he was a TamilNadu state level hockey player which had him hospitalized for over 4 months and which had a great impact on his 10th marks would haunt him while deciding his future career.
But within 6 months of his tenure in Amazon, Gokul Shrinivas felt that this was not his field and wanted to focus on building innovative products. So, he resigned his well-paid job to follow his dreams “Innovation” that got him several International and National awards at a point.
He started selling his products until he came across a brilliant idea and ended up bringing forth “MINION” the first ever device level energy tracking device into market. At this point of time Jeyakumar who were well expertise in software field joined hands and thus making perfect partners for creating this IoT solution.- As narrated……with inputs from internet – RajKishan