This startup is using IoT to make Indian homes energy efficient

Back in the 90s, while growing up in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur and UP’s Kanpur, Pranesh Chaudhary and Sushant Sachan, like million others, suffered a common problem i.e. frequent power outages. This catapulted a strong desire in them to create something that can potentially impact the lives of millions who had long borne the brunt of the power crisis.

“The genesis of Zunpulse could be traced back to the times when we felt a strong desire to solve something, it was in the many hours of the day when Muzaffarpur saw electricity cuts and our lives seemed to come to a stop,” said Zunpulse co-founder and CEO Pranesh who launched the startup along with his fellow IIT Kharagpur Sushant Sachan. Pranesh tells Plunge Daily about  his entrepreneurial  journey  and also shares his vision  to deliver smarter choices for all electricity needs at every Indian home.

1) Zunpulse was launched in 2016? Please tell us about your initial journey and what made you venture into the IOT space?

In 2016, I started the company along with my long-time friend Sushant Sachan, who is also the chief R&D Officer at Zunpulse. We had set out to solve the major problem of demand and supply of electricity by creating an impactful market space for solar rooftop installation and an IoT-based automation solution for efficient electricity utilization. Zunpulse is now India’s fastest-growing IoT and AI-enabled home-tech company that aims to deliver smarter choices for all electricity needs in every home. We derive inspiration from the smallest of things, but if we trace back to the times when we felt a strong desire to solve something, it was in the many hours of the day when Muzaffarpur saw electricity cuts and our lives seemed to come to a stop.

We believe, having experienced this personally and realizing that electricity expense is a costly affair for households, inspired us to ensure that no house in India lives without affordable electricity. We have come a long way in this quest, and it has inspired us to move towards the smart utilization of this available electricity. In the future, we see us fulfilling the twin problems of demand and supply of electricity around the world using IOT and exciting upcoming technologies.

Zunpulse started with an aim to provide access to clean, smart, and free electricity. While this was only the first half of the problem, the second half involved efficient utilization of energy through IoT (Internet of Things).
We are solving energy issues by using a renewable source of energy but that is not enough if people waste the same clean energy with outdated tech and appliances. So, we are helping Indian homes automate and utilize energy efficiently through in-house developed IoT-enabled hardware and accompanying apps.

From creating India’s leading marketplace for residential solar rooftop services to paving the way to build a D2C smart home empire that focuses on green, clean, and smart energy- we have come a long way in this journey. Today, we were committed to empowering customers by simplifying the intricacies of technology and in the process getting to elevate their standard of living. It was significantly important for us to ensure that the power should be used in an efficient and sustainable manner so that consumers can minimize electricity bills to a great extent.

2) Please tell us about your products- the idea behind its launch, the kind of response you have received and its significance.

We have divided our smart appliances into four categories. What binds all the products is that they all operate through the Zunpulse app and require a regular Wi-Fi internet connection.

Lighting: We have smart bulbs, smart downlights, and smart strip lights, where along with having the ability to remotely switch on and off, consumers also have the ability to change their colours (approximately 16 million colour options) and offer mood lighting depending on the occasion whether it’s a party with friends or reading a book.

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We’ve attached lifestyle elements to these devices because one can’t force-feed energy efficiency to people. It’s imperative to cater to their needs. If you’ve forgotten to switch off the lights, all you need to do is get on the app and switch them off. You can also schedule these appliances to switch on or off automatically at a given time through the app.

Control is the most important category in the Indian context. There are smart plugs and smart remotes, which allow consumers to convert their older appliances into smart ones. After all, it’s sometimes not practical to get rid of your old appliances and go all in on an IoT-based smart system. You would want a way to convert these old appliances into smart ones as well.

These are retrofit products for Indian homes for a lack of a better word. This is where Zunpulse’s smart plug and remote come into play. The smart plug looks like any normal three-pin plug that any of us use. You take the smart plug, insert it into the socket and attach your geyser or AC plug to it. The smart plug pairs with the Zunpulse app, and then it gives you all the control over the geyser. You can remotely switch the geyser on and off through our app or you can schedule it to switch on at a given time. For example, you can schedule your geyser to run from 8 am to 8.10 am every morning, following which it automatically switches off.

You don’t have to think about manually doing them. Besides energy savings, the task at hand is already done for you. Similarly, our smart remote allows you to control your AC or TVs. Now coming to the customer response, Zunpulse is already becoming a household name where we have impacted more than 1 lakh customers across India. We have attained a steady month-on-month growth of 10% on the number of products sold in 2021. Along with that, in the past year, we have launched 20+ SKUs for which we are receiving an enthusiastic response from the customers.

This year 2022, we would have grown > 3X on our smart electrical appliances revenue. In our last financial year, we did about Rs 41 crores in revenue, and this year we will look to close on a very strong footing. We will exit this financial year with a 100 Cr annualized revenue run-rate and do a 400 Cr annualized revenue run-rate in 2 years.

Given the growth and customer’s zeal for India’s own IoT brand, Zunpulse we are assured that we would be able to impact 5 million homes by 2025.

3) From a layman’s perspective, do tell us the amount of power that can be saved using IoT products in an average household. What are the major benefits of IoT energy management?

We have created an IoT enabled hardware range that includes 11 smart devices under four categories—lighting, security, control, and purifiers—all of them working with one single app over Wi-Fi and not needing any wiring change at all in homes (a major limiting factor in usual home automation firms). These plug-and-play devices include smart bulb, smart plug, smart AC remote, smart TV remote, energy monitor, smart video doorbell, smart camera, and smart plug among others. For instance, with our IoT device, a homeowner can now schedule their AC to automatically turn off at 3:00 am every night and thus save energy bills, check if they forgot to turn off the AC while leaving for the office, and identify energy saving opportunities through the energy monitor. Today, Zunpulse has impacted over 1 lakh homeowners across the country.

With regards to ACs, for example, through the app, you can schedule it to run at a certain temperature for a given period of time, following which it runs at a higher temperature or switches off altogether. Another product under the ‘Control’ category is the smart brushless DC (BLDC) fan. By the very fact that it uses a brushless DC motor, it consumes 40% less electricity than conventional fans. Once again, you can use the app to control the speed of the fan. Three weeks ago, we launched our smart water heaters in the Delhi-NCR region.

Some of the major benefits of IoT energy management are Reduce energy spending, Minimizes carbon emission, Integrates green energy, Optimizes asset management and helps to cut off operational expenses.

4) Please tell us about the factors that can help increase the adoption of IoT devices in the country? 

There has been a massive increase in the demand for IoT devices across the country. Especially after the pandemic when most of the people who stayed at home realized the significance of comfort and convenience. However, the IoT-based market that is exponentially changing and expanding every day is relatively new in India, and there is a huge section of customers who are yet to realize its capabilities.

It’s one of the reasons that companies that work in the sphere of IoT-based technology need to make people aware of this life-altering technology that they can use in their everyday lives. While educating people about IoT-based technology, it’s important to stress on a few of the dormant factors such as communication, energy efficiency, cost savings, enhanced security, better standards of living, and more.

5) Covid is touted to be a gamechanger for the IoT segment. Please share the opportunities and challenges that came along with the pandemic.

Challenges are inevitable for any startup. In our case, we are creating a category of home-tech products and services for home-owners, which by definition is a hard business to build. We had to educate the customers rather than sell to them.

After all is said and done, you remember the one who was the most resilient. I strongly believe this applies to us- you can’t reach great heights without going through challenges and hurdles. Zunpulse, as a home tech company, has its share of ups and downs too. To solve some major issues that India has been facing, we entered into an industry that has always been excessively close-knitted and competitive.

From creating India’s leading marketplace for residential solar rooftop services to paving the way to build a D2C smart home empire that focuses on green, clean, and smart energy- we have come a long way in this journey. Today, we were committed to empowering customers by simplifying the intricacies of technology and in the process getting to elevate their standard of living. It was significantly important for us to ensure that the power should be used in an efficient and sustainable manner so that consumers can minimize electricity bills to a great extent.

6) There is a huge untapped potential for IoT in the Indian market. How do you see the landscape of the IoT market changing in coming years?

A smart home is a home that uses a convenient home setup where internet-connected appliances and devices are used to allow the residents with remote control and monitoring of all the devices and systems, such as heating, lighting, music etc. A smart home creates a network of devices through the internet which enables the residents with ease to control functions of all the connected devices and appliances through an application. It enhances the experience of the residents by providing added control to functions such as security access to the home, temperature, lighting, and a home theater remotely.

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Zunpulse was launched as a home automation range of devices and we believe that smartphones have changed the way we live. Therefore, can do more with the technology at our disposal. With our smart home products, we help our customers to lighten, control, and secure their homes with a single tap on their phones. The first generation of Zunpulse has 11 smart home products that are Wi-Fi enabled, plug & play devices that enable the customers to control all their electrical appliances with just one tap on the Zunpulse app. The devices include smart bulb, smart plug, smart ac remote, smart TV remote, energy monitor, smart video doorbell, smart camera, and smart plug among many others.
Smart products are currently provided in scattered options or select value propositions across the industry. These products work on different platforms and user interfaces- which makes it difficult for the end-user to experience the range of smart products. Therefore, to make the experience of smart products in its entirety easy, we are offering a plethora of smart products on a single Made-In-India mobile application.

Apart from the core benefits we also offer comfort and convenience to the users, the products enable home automation for efficient utilization of electricity at homes and offices. In the smart home segment, smart bulbs, plugs along with Wi-Fi-enabled security devices like smart doorbells, downlights, and more are a few of the many selling products across the leading e-commerce websites such as Amazon, Flipkart, and Snapdeal. Customers can also make their purchases at the Zunpulse website as well.

The relentless demand for smart home solutions across the world comes off as a steady assurance about its exponential market growth. As per recent reports, the market growth for smart home solutions is likely to reach $13,574.1 million by 2026. Customers are understandably inclining towards easy and effective IoT-based smart solutions for their homes. Zunpulse facilitates its users to a numerous range of smart products that entail end-to-end home automation to provide a truly smart experience to homeowners which makes our buyer anyone with a steady Wi-Fi connection.

7) Please share with us your business revenue model. Has Zunpulse turned profitable?

Zunpulse as an IoT home-tech company is making its mark. We have already impacted more than 1 lakh customers across India. We have attained a steady month-on-month growth of 10% on the number of products sold in 2021.In the past year, we launched more than 20 SKUs for which we are receiving a warm response from the customers.
In 2021, we would have grown three times with our smart electrical appliances revenue. In our last financial year, we did about INR 41 crores in revenue and closed on a very strong footing. We exited the financial year with a 100 Cr annualized revenue run-rate and expected to do a 400 Cr annualized revenue run-rate in the coming 2 years.

8) Please tell us about your team, your presence in the country and your roadmap for future growth.

I started the company with my long-time close friend Sushant Sachan, the chief research officer at Zunpulse. It should be noted that the operations at Zunpulse are entirely carried out by the in-house research and development team. Along with that, Zunpulse is one of the few companies that have its own in-house IoT technology comprising of all three pillars – firmware, software, hardware. Given the growth and customer’s zeal for India’s own IoT brand, Zunpulse we are aiming to impact 5 million homes by the year 2025. We also expect to do a 400 Cr annualized revenue run-rate in the coming 2 years.

9) Please tell us about your funding and what makes investors bullish about Zunpulse
So far, Zunpulse has raised approximately USD 5 million in equity funding in four rounds of funding from 2016-2020. The first angel round was led by our IIT-KGP seniors, which is a great network to leverage when starting up. The next angel round of funding was led by Pradeep Tharakan, the Principal Energy Specialist (Climate Change) at the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Gaurav Gupta, Dalberg’s Regional Director for Asia, and Ramakant Sharma, founder of Livespace. The two follow-on rounds were raised from Godrej Family Fund led by Pirojsha Godrej, Executive Chairman, Godrej Properties.

Zunpulse stands at a 3-4X year-on-year growth. Zunpulse made 4 million in USD revenue in the financial year 2020 and achieved 1 million USD in monthly booked revenue for February of 2020. In the year 2021, we grew > 3X on our smart electrical appliances revenue. Last FY2021- We did 41.2 CR in revenue. To top it off investors realize the growth potential and demand for IoT-based products.