Manoj Meena had already secured what regarded like the proper ending to his IIT Bombay journey.
An ISRO job was ready for him after his remaining 12 months. For his household in rural Rajasthan, the selection appeared apparent. A steady authorities job meant safety and a settled future.
Meena selected one thing a lot much less sure. He determined to construct.
The Electrical Engineering scholar had spent his IIT Bombay years immersed in robotics and electronics, taking part in competitions and dealing on know-how initiatives. He had developed a perception that engineering ought to clear up issues individuals really face.
Entrepreneurship, he realised, may give him the liberty to pursue that concept. His household didn’t instantly perceive the choice. However Meena took the plunge.
The corporate he began would finally change into Atomberg Applied sciences.
ATOMBERG DID NOT START WITH A FAN
Meena based Atomberg in 2012 and was later joined by fellow IIT Bombay alumnus Sibabrata Das in 2013.
There was no grand client startup plan. The corporate was incubated at SINE, IIT Bombay, and the founders spent the primary few years bootstrapping and taking on know-how initiatives.
They labored on information acquisition programs, motor management, course of management and different engineering issues for establishments and analysis organisations.
Additionally they tried totally different concepts. Automobile monitoring was one. Different initiatives got here and went. The founders had been usually doing every little thing themselves, from constructing know-how to visiting prospects and fixing units.
These first years had been a protracted seek for a scalable thought. They’d the engineering abilities. They simply had not discovered the suitable downside.
FOUR YEARS OF SEARCHING FINALLY LED TO A FAN
The breakthrough got here in 2015.
Whereas engaged on motors, energy electronics and management programs, the founders started learning the ceiling fan market.
The atypical ceiling fan had barely modified in the way in which that mattered most to customers: electrical energy consumption.
A traditional fan sometimes used round 75 to 80 watts. The crew developed a brushless DC, or BLDC, motor that would ship comparable output at round 28 watts.
In sensible phrases, Atomberg stated its followers may eat as much as 65% much less energy than typical followers.
That was the breakthrough.
The founders had discovered a technique to take their engineering capabilities and apply them to an equipment present in hundreds of thousands of Indian houses.
Atomberg launched its first fan beneath the Gorilla model in 2015.
Initially, the corporate provided followers to institutional patrons. In 2016, it made the troublesome transition in the direction of customers.
And that created a wholly new downside.
‘WHO WILL BUY YOUR FANS?’
Atomberg was attempting to enter a market dominated by established firms comparable to Bajaj, Crompton, Havells and Usha. It additionally needed to promote followers on-line, regardless of customers historically shopping for them via bodily retailers.
Traders questioned whether or not an unknown startup may compete with firms that had a long time of name recognition and distribution.
The founders saved pitching. And saved listening to no.
Based on Forbes India, Atomberg’s working income had reached 37 crore in FY19, and it was producing round 1,000 followers a day. The enterprise was rising, however its capital wants had been rising too.
Then got here 2019.
ATOMBERG HAD ABOUT A MONTH LEFT
This was the purpose the place the startup’s survival was genuinely doubtful.
Das later recalled that Atomberg had an especially quick runway left. Salaries had been being delayed, distributors had been demanding funds and funding discussions had been going nowhere.
Years of labor had been immediately in danger.
In his account to Forbes India, Das recalled the emotional toll of that interval, together with reaching some extent the place the founders questioned whether or not they must wind down the corporate.
Then a brand new chance appeared. The founders got here throughout information a couple of newly fashioned fund and reached out regardless of having little purpose to count on a response.
They obtained one.
The fund moved rapidly. Inside weeks, Atomberg had secured the capital it wanted to proceed.
The startup that had been near shutting down had one other likelihood. This time, it was able to scale.
THE FAN BECAME A TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM
Atomberg’s largest evolution was that it stopped being simply an energy-efficiency story.
The BLDC motor allowed the corporate to make its followers extra compact. Over time, it added distant controls, LED interfaces, Wi-Fi connectivity and app-based controls.
The corporate’s product design additionally modified.
Its Renaissance vary launched smaller motors and a extra minimalist look, serving to Atomberg differentiate itself from typical ceiling followers.
The founders have stated the product step by step advanced from an energy-efficient equipment into a sensible equipment.
The identical know-how capabilities additionally created alternatives exterior followers.
Atomberg finally moved into classes comparable to mixer grinders and water purifiers, whereas exploring functions for its motor and electronics experience in areas together with air-conditioning parts and drone motors.
FROM IIT BOMBAY’S INCUBATOR TO Rs 1,000 CRORE
The corporate that when struggled to persuade traders finally turned a significant Indian client know-how model.
Atomberg’s working income reached about 958 crore in FY25, whereas its whole revenue crossed 1,000 crore.
Meena’s journey has introduced him recognitions together with the Nationwide Entrepreneurship Award, Forbes India 30 Below 30, Forbes Asia 30 Below 30 and IIT Bombay’s Younger Alumni Achievers Award.
Das has additionally featured on Forbes’ 30 Below 30 lists and acquired the Younger Alumnus Achiever Award from IIT Bombay.
However probably the most attention-grabbing a part of Meena’s story started lengthy earlier than these awards.
It started in rural Rajasthan, the place entry to electrical energy was restricted and energy mattered enormously to on a regular basis life.
Years later, the IIT Bombay engineer who had walked away from a safe ISRO profession was constructing know-how round one of many largest on a regular basis makes use of of electrical energy in Indian houses.
Atomberg didn’t emerge from one good thought.
It got here after 4 years of looking, failed experiments, funding rejections and one very atypical query:
What if the fan may merely use much less electrical energy?
That query turned the muse of an organization that might finally cross 1,000 crore in whole revenue.
– Ends
