Aditya Patidar
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay - Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management
Ashish Pandey
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ELECTRONICS AND COMMUNICATIONS
Electronics & Communications group focuses on development of the software and hardware that go into our products. Ecozen does many things ranging from operating systems to control algorithms, from designing PCBs to packaging them. They work extensively on GPRS and GSM communication and constantly develop and improvise the control system architecture and algorithms to ensure that the products deliver the best results with maximum reliability.
Ecozen products are enabled with facilities to log operating data from the field to their web servers for the best possible service support. Further innovation lies in meeting their requirements that cannot be catered through products and services available in the market today.
POWER ELECTRONICS
Power electronics group focuses on research and development of several modules, ranging from motor drives and controllers to power converters. They use various topologies to ensure that their products are powered by robust hardware. For the kinds of products that ecozen works with, the scope is immense for the development of novel and ingenious power electronic systems.
Ecozen strives to remain at the forefront of innovations in the field of solar photovoltaic and allied technologies.
THERMAL AND STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING
Mechanical engineering lies at the core of Ecozen’s product offerings. The thermal and structural engineering group at Ecozen carries out extensive research and development on refrigeration systems, heat transfer modules, heat exchangers, structural, wind loading analysis. They use state-of-art software and hardware equipment for simulation and testing purposes. The group helps the power electronics group in designing efficient circuits.
They also carry out cutting-edge research to deploy systems, sensors, and methodologies hitherto unavailable.
DATA SCIENCE AND ANALYTICS
In this fast-paced world of information, Ecozen products are equipped with latest technologies to serve their customers the best way possible. In order to support this, they perform a multitude of analytics on the data generated from the products working on the ground. This helps Ecozen to understand how they can improvise every day to meet the demands efficiently.
Products are equipped with latest technologies that allow Ecozen to send and receive data remotely. The process helps them not only in analyzing products' performance but also in servicing them better.
Mr. Vivek Pandey (Co-Founder and CTO) and his colleague were once working on a consulting project on cold storage. They stumbled upon an article in The Economic Times titled 'No One to Protect Their or Our Veggies' when Dr. Sudhir Panwar, the president of Kisan Jagriti Manch emphasized over having village level cold storage systems. The background of mechanical engineering, experience in solar and an urge for social impact excited them enough for them to create a solution. They did a 6-month market survey in villages and mandis (a market of vegetables/fruits/grains) of UP, Bihar, Maharashtra, and West-Bengal etc. to get an idea about the real need. In the meantime, they also received some recognition at national and international avenues for the novelty of the idea.
Ecozen Solutions offers complete end to end packaged solutions to your business or home to enhance your energy efficacy and reduce your pocket hole as well as your environmental impact. The horizons of their solutions span Energy Auditing, Recommendations for energy improvement, Implementation, LED Lighting, Home/Office Automation, Solar Installations, Sustainability Reporting, Indoor Air Quality Analysis and Improvement.
Sustainability has become the need of the hour. The state of operations of human activities cannot continue the way it is going on. Ecozen is aimed at achieving sustainability without compromising the growth rate and comforts of the current and growing energy consumption.
To achieve sustainability the most important thing is to create and spread awareness about energy efficiency, energy wastage and the scope of energy savings through simple and minor actions at the workplace or home.
They are reaching out to more areas in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh. They will also be using the funding to improve the business structure and supply chain including logistics and production," said Devendra Gupta, co-founder of Ecozen. Gupta, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, founded Ecozen along with Vivek Pandey and Prateek Singhal in 2010. Ecozen is looking to make direct sales to big farmers and institutions related to agricultural activity.
Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/agriculture/cold-storage-maker-ecozen-raises-6-2-crore-from-omnivore-partners/articleshow/46831106.cms
With their solar pumping and lighting solutions in rural areas, they have been affecting the agriculture sector for quite some time. Ecozen have installed over 40 solar pumps for agriculture and drinking water purposes in rural areas.
They are going to start conducting pilots in 4 pre-determined locations in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The impact would be visible in a period of 3 to 4 months. They expect the income to grow by at least 80% given that they have the market connect with them (we are helping them in the same as well).
Concrete evidence:
Mr. Singh, a farmer in Bharaich district in UP who produces Gladiolus flower is going to use the product in a twofold manner:
1. He will store about 25,000 flower sticks in the cold storage at a given time during the harvest period for 7-8 days and will directly reach out to the market.
2. Storing flower bulbs (seeds) in optimum conditions leads to a higher yield.
He claims that he will store the bulbs during off-season and would be able to have 4 flowers from one bulb as compared to 2 in a normal case. Also, he would no longer have to invest in purchasing flower bulbs from the market before the season starts Ecozen is helping him getting 75% of capital cost financed from a bank. His investment would be paid back in less than 18 months!
Business model for Financial Stability: Ecozen is seeking external funding in order to create the base for large scale production. They have been successful in raising a part of the same.
They are liaising with banks and village administrations that are providing soft loans to farmers. This would ensure that they do not face a working capital crunch situation.
Their plan to expand to Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra in the 2nd phase and plan to target more fruits and vegetables over time.
Ecozen products are win-win for both the buyers and the sellers. For example: Solar irrigation products are able to provide break-even very fast.
The cold storage is something which requires a lot of capital investment and it becomes difficult for farmers to invest that much in cold storage options. So, it creates a situation of helplessness in terms of bargaining power and they have to sell their products at cheaper rates and go into losses at many times. Micro cold storage from Ecozen solution is cost effective and enables the farmers to buy it at affordable rates and in many cases in partnerships with other farmers. They can also rent the storage in case they are not using it for some period of time. This is portable and can be moved with much ease relative to other options. These products have great social impacts as they empower farmers and result in the overall benefit of society as a whole.
The products of Ecozen solutions have huge environmental benefits, especially via clean energy consumption. Solar irrigation not only helps in providing cleaner energy alternative but also provide consistent electricity to farmers which have huge impact for them especially in power shortage states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar etc.
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