Innovation

Sameer DS and Nihal Revankar, two young Mechanical Engineers, started their journey with UrMajesty, a hyper local delivery startup. After UrMajesty got acquired by Freshboxx, they both started off with their unique innovation in the solar industry, Feynman Innovations.

The idea came into being in the year 2016 with the purpose of bringing great ideas to life and help others find a sustainable solution in a cost effective manner.

They were already running a project from Hubli and that's where they started off with this new project as well. They aim to cater to the solar industry by providing intelligent autonomous cleaning robots for solar panels in the production plants. They started with their product Dustie ACS - 1 and received good response for its efficient use.

If we closely look into their innovative offering, then we'll realize that they're catering to SDGs 7, 9 and 13. Their motto is to provide clean energy solutions in the most cost effective manner and they aspire to be the leading company in its featured products through continuous innovation and best customer experience.

A better world will be made if all of us move towards adopting more energy efficient ways for our lifestyle and their solution is just a start for a big transformation to come.

Inspiration

"We started with UrMajesty. It was a hyper local delivery system. We used to take vegetables from PMC, segregate it quality wise and distribute it to its desired buyer. After UrMajesty got acquired by Freshboxx which eventually got acquired by Big Basket, we decided to move from service industry to product industry. We started off with coffee vending machines but we faced a lot of competition. So we kept innovating and after Indian government launched an initiative of having a 100 GW solar plant by 2022, we decided to enter into solar industry. At that time, we didn't have any competition as far as Indian market was concerned. So the start was great and we're continually innovating our product" - Sameer DS, COO, Feynman Innovations

"Richard Feynman was the brain behind a lot of Physics theories and as our venture revolves around Physics so we decided to go with the name Feynman Innovations" - Sameer DS, COO, Feynman Innovations

Overall impact

"Dust accumulates on the panels and can reduce the efficiency by 35%. It takes up to 7,000-20,000 liters of water/MW. Normal water forms scales on panels due to deposition of minerals. Every year 2.7 billion liters of water is used to clean the panels!! That is a lot of water wastage. We provide dry cleaning of panels using special micro-fibers , Intelligent data management for notifying the cleaning time and frequency, Retro-fit robots, On-demand & wireless operation and Energy independent on-board panels "

"The cleaning robot starts from one end and cleans till the other end and then come back to its previous location and settle down. Then it moves to the next panel and so on. It operates over a distance of approximately 100 meters to and fro. It operates from 6:30 PM to 7:00 AM and that's how the whole operation takes place." - Sameer DS, COO, Feynman Innovations

Business benefit

"Projected revenue for 2019 for 100+ Robots is approximately INR 50 Crores. We have a team of 6 employees and 3 Co-Founders who continuously work for the betterment of our business.

Our action plan included to build a final market ready product, ensure the efficiency, reliability and robustness of the product, file the provisional patents and other legal structures, make a professional video with working, specifications of the product, arrange the vendors and assembly area to build the product, market the product and get a letter of intent from them, sell few products and try raising more funds with some equity and lastly partner with leading PV manufacturing companies. We have completed a lot of them and moving towards next phase of our business.

Ultimately we want to be the leading company in its featured products through continuous innovation and best customer experience. " - Sameer DS, COO, Feynman Innovations

"Recognized as “TOP 10” startup among 200 participants from 40 countries and represented INDIA at Global Innovator Festa, South Korea on Nov 3rd & 4th, 2017 organized by AICTE, New Delhi, India. "

"Placed 5th Rank among 5000+ participants all over India at National startup summit under India International science festival, IIT Madras, Chennai on Oct 14th & 15th, 2017. "

"Recognized as Top 250 startups out of 1700 in Karnataka under the event “ELEVATE 100” held by Government of Karnataka on August 29th & 30th , 2017. "

Social and environmental benefit

"We basically cater to SDGs 7, 9 and 13.

SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy

Our core value revolves around providing clean energy solutions in the most cost effective manner. Solar industry is growing and we want to remain in this segment only and innovate more to increase our range of offerings.

SDG 9 - Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

Our product in itself is an innovative one and solar industry growth completely aligns with our offerings. We plan to ultimately expand to international markets as well to make full use of growing solar energy sector.

SDG 13 - Climate Action

Climate change is real. The quickly we accept it, the better position we'll be in. We have accepted it and that's why we are working towards providing more climate friendly energy solutions, renewable ones. We firmly pledge to decrease the level of crisis that our environment is facing right now and develop products to provide more and more clean energy solutions."

- Sameer DS, COO, Feynman Innovations

Interview

Mr. Sameer DS, Chief Operations Officer