Angel Platform Inflection Point Ventures invests in IoT Startup Eden Smart Homes

• First institutional round raised by the Company
• 11th investment by IPV since March this year
• IPV emerges as one of the most active angel platforms in India continuing with deals even during the pandemic
• Funds raised to be used for launching new product lines and scaling up sales and marketing efforts
• Founded by IIT Delhi students, present across 5 cities in India

Inflection Point Ventures, one of India’s most active angel platforms has invested an undisclosed amount in Eden Smart Homes. This marks IPV’s 11^th investment since March this year.

Started in 2018, Eden Smart Homes is an IoT startup which has a range of smart homes solutions. The funds raised will be used for launching new product lines and scaling up sales and marketing operations to acquire more customers.

Vinay Bansal, Founder & CEO, Inflection Point Ventures says, “We are known to back great founders with great business models with a sustainable growth path. With the ease with which all of us are embracing technology and the Smart City projects currently underway, there is a demand for IoT enabled homes. Eden has been able to position themselves as an aspirational product for Indian households as the disposable income rises. We believe that their fast and seamless technology coupled with a promise of power savings will wow their customer segment."

Eden Homes was launched with an aim to develop an indigenous and cost effective smart home automation system. Eden's solution includes monitoring power consumption, the ability to view real-time status of appliances, scheduling on and off times for appliances and creating custom scenarios. Also, one-button control of the entire smart home makes them an attractive smart home solution in the market where there is currently no clear leader.

Pranjal Kacholia, Co-Founder of Eden Smart Homes says, “We aim to become India’s leading IoT company in the next 3 years. In India, the smart home market is expected to be $8 billion by 2023 and we aim to be one of the well-known brands in this segment. Our product helps save power significantly in both the residential and commercial segment. To have investors like IPV, which can leverage their huge network strength to not only sign cheques but also help us scale up our business quickly makes this a win-win partnership."

Eden Smart Homes is currently present across 5 cities in India. Eden Smart Homes will be using the funds raised to set up their distribution channel across 30 major cities for driving more business in the Home segment. The Company is also in talks with large brands and SMEs to license a part of their technology for bundle up sales and even listing it online on targeted platforms for better visibility to the customers.

About Eden Smart Homes

Eden was founded in 2018 by two IIT Delhi students with an aim to build advanced innovative IoT solutions for India’s Home and Office Automation industry.  The team consists of young founders who bring in a perfect blend of technology and business acumen.

About Inflection Point Ventures

Inflection Point Ventures is an initiative of accomplished CXOs & Angel Investors who firmly believe that ‘Everyone can Grow with Startups’. Started in 2018, IPV has invested more than Rs 100 crore across 35+ startups. IPV’s investors’ base, currently at 2500+ is seeing a massive influx of highly accomplished CXOs and HNIs, looking to invest in startups with rational valuation and sustainable business model.

Meet Wozart - India's First Apple Homekit Licensed IoT Startup by Alumni of BITS-Pilani, CUSAT and LBS

India, being the growing nation, it is aggressively adapting digitization in most walks of life. With the surge in internet and smartphone usage in several developing countries across the globe, home automation solutions are evolving continuously. Whether it is an application across residential, commercial or hospitality segments, automation is used everywhere nowadays.

But one of the most crucial issues that most of the home automation companies are not paying a heed to, is a robust security system. In a few years, home automation will become the way of life and lack of a strong security system is like virtually handing over the keys of your house to any novice computer geek with a criminal mind.

Sensing the need to cater this problem, the alumni of BITS Pilani and London Business School, Manoj Malineni, Abhilash Dasyreddy, Prashanth Rao, Nikhil Mandalika and Aditya Chaudhry from CUSAT(Cochin University of Science and Technology) founded Wozart Technologies in 2016.

“We are creating the next generation living. We are bringing convenience, simplicity, and luxury all at once just like AT cars vs. MT cars. The idea was conceptualized when our founder wanted home automation for his house and one of the big companies in the world quoted a ridiculously high amount. So he decided to build his own home automation system and started the company with the other co-founders,” says Nikhil Mandalika, Vice President and co-founder of Wozart Technologies.

Based out of Hyderabad, Wozart is an IoT (Internet of Things) tech startup that have built a wireless home automation product which is India’s first and only Apple Homekit licensed product. It is the only product that provides OS level integration with your smart devices thereby providing India’s first future proof home automation product. It provides absolute data privacy and military grade encrypted communication protocol through the usage of iCloud for data communication.

[caption id="attachment_118137" align="aligncenter" width="700"] AURA SMART SWITCH[/caption]

"Our usage of iCloud provides the best in class security and also enabling the safest and secure environment required for a home automation product to integrate with locks and doorbell cameras," says Mandalika.

On asking Mandalika, the reason behind the name given to startup, he says “The members of the founding team are huge admirers of Apple and the relentless revolutions in technology they bring about at the turn of every year. Steve Jobs might be the face of the company but we wish to pay our tributes to one of the legends in technological inventions, Steve Wozniak. Our aim is to create artistic technology the way Wozniak did and thus the name Wozart."

First And Only Apple Homekit Licensed Product In India

Wozart home automation product line, Aura was built on the technology platform of Apple called Homekit -- a smartphone home automation platform by Apple, that allows controlling smart home products with iOS apps and Siri voice commands. "Only certified and Apple approved accessories can experience the features and benefits of Homekit such as controls through Siri, OS Level Integration (meaning you can control the accessories which any smart device existing or yet to be released) and iCloud for updates,” explains Mandalika.

Apple has publicly assured significant updates to Homekit to preserve their lead in IOT tech with new competition arising from Amazon, Google, and other tech giants. The company claims that Aura is India's first and only Homekit compatible device in India. It is a retro-fittable device and bridges the electrical circuit of the house to its IP circuit thereby allowing you to control your appliances through your smart devices such as phones, tablets, and smartwatches.

You can then control the appliances with your voice, set scenes (multiple actions with one command), schedule, regulate light intensity and fan speed, set location based triggers etc.

Talking about their revenue, Mandaika says that is generated through the sales of their product(s). Up until now, they targeted the B2B channel, mainly the builder segment along with solution integrators and dealers to generate bulk orders and spread the word on our product.

“From August we will be entering the B2C market as well where we will sell our product directly to the end users through online and offline sales,” says Mandalika.

Notably, the startup is also member of WiFi Alliance group, which is an international group of top companies manufacturing WiFi based products.

Competition & Sector Overview

If we believe the prediction by the industry guru’s, IoT is the next big thing in the Indian market and this can be proved by the figures mentioned in the Accenture report. According to the report, Indian IoT market is estimated to be a $13 trillion dollar industry by 2020 and home automation and industrial automation retain a major chunk of the IOT sector. If we look at the figures of home automation market in India, according to a report published by RedSeer Consulting, the market is expected to reach Rs 8800 crores by 2017. The key reason behind this rapid growth is the rising demand of the consumer's, financial ability, increase in internet and smartphone penetration, and increase in the preference for energy efficient systems.

Sensing this opportunity, many entrepreneurs have come up with the idea to capture this untapped market. Startups like Oakter, Inoho, IFIHOMES.com, Silvan Innovation Labs, SharpNode are few promising home automation startups in India that are ruling the home automation sector in India.

Working on the shoulders of a giant like Apple should provide Wozart with a kick start to always stay ahead of the competition in terms of product development.

“Majority of the companies in the IOT space are focussed only on delivering technology at the cheapest possible rates without bothering about the reliability of the technology or the quality of the product. We do not want to fall in this rat race for the lowest price but are instead focused on delivering the best product we can which is superior to our competitors in all aspects. We were the first and only Apple licensed product in India along with having the Apple MFi license is a testimonial to our relentless pursuit of product quality,” says Mandalika.

If we look at the market they want to capture that is agriculture, Wozart may come across few challenges as they move ahead in the market. However, their dedication towards bringing the change the way people live and their passion for achieving their goal will lead them towards the path of success.

Scale-up/ Future Plans

Started company as a provider of smart solutions for homes, industries, and cities, Mandalika says that apart from this sectors they identified agriculture as a major domain that can adapt the latest technological advancements for better results at efficient costs.

Currently, they are operating out of their corporate office in Hyderabad but have distribution channels setup in all the major cities of India. They are in process of launching marketing offices for each city as well. Outside of India, they are targeting US, Europe and the Middle East with the setting up of the office already initiated in the US.

“We are launching our home automation products, Aura Switch and Aura Switch Mini. We have bagged some B2B deals with a few real estate companies across the country. From August, we will be launching Aura in the B2C channel as well,” concludes Mandalika.

This Coimbatore Startup Wants To Make Smart-Homes Affordable To Everyone in India

Coimbatore-based Karsan technologies has decided to make every Indian home smarter than ever with its stellar debut product, Smitch.

Imagine a home which knows you better, understands you better and helps you save your hard-earned money by managing your electricity consumptions without you having to compromise and make changes in your lifestyle. Karsan technologies' Smitch is a tiny WiFi enabled smart module which makes all this possible.

Launched with a mission of making every home in India a smart home by 2030, the extremely compact WiFi enabled smart module goes comfortably behind your switchboard and lets you control your lights, fan and electrical points right through your smartphone (mobile app) or voice (Amazon echo).

How Does It Work?

The Smitch modules has an in-built WiFi chip through which they directly connect to your existing router without requiring any external hub. This particular feature lets you control and monitor your home from anywhere in the world at anytime of the day/night. It meticulously monitors your energy consumption and then provides you with detailed analytics which can help you in cutting down your energy bills significantly.

What Makes Smitch Different From Other Home Automation Products?

Though Smitch faces tough competition in the market from products like Silvan, Oakter, Pert and Homebot etc., but the product holds on its own as unlike other home automation products, it doesn't require a hub to function. This automatically helps in reducing the cost of automation significantly. Karsan technologies claims that Smitch is 30% more affordable than its competitors. In addition to this, Smitch is extremely compact and sits comfortably behind a user's existing switchboard, which means it saves them the trouble of replacing their switchboards or rewiring their existing cables.

The Founders

Karsan technologies was started by two 19-year-old Robotics and Automation engineering students, Sanath Kumar and Pragadheesh Raj in August, 2015. The duo decided to give up the prospects of having cushiony jobs for their love for building products and automation. They decided to leap whole-heartedly into entrepreneurship after the completion of their degree. The duo already have a couple of patents under their names, both combined and individually.

The young duo already owns a patent under their name: Home Automation Controlled Both Manually And Remotely (Patent issuer and number in India 5554/CHE/2015).

Sanath kumar also owns two other patents in the Home automation space viz Automatic Switch Actuation Systems & Economic Energy Management For Telecommunication Towers.

Pragadheesh published his paper 'Flexible Automation System for Industrial Transformer Testing' in the 'International Journal of Advanced Research in Electrical, Electronics and Instrumentation'.

Journey So Far

The startup, which received a whopping Rs.3 crores angel funding in December 2015 within a couple of months of its launch, now has over 400 homes in Coimbatore automated by Smitch. It is currently in the midst of locking in deals with several builders and property developers in Bengaluru, Chennai and Mumbai to be their one stop Home automation provider. With an average conversion rate of around 23 per cent, Smitch numbers have been phenomenal so far.

Plan Ahead

With Smitch already making its presence feel in metropolitan cities like Bengaluru, Mumbai and Chennai, Karsan technologies plans to expand the joy of affordable home automation to several other cities across India by the end of the 2017-18 FY.

Website: http://mysmitch.com/
App: https://appsto.re/in/jZ7_fb.i

This Coimbatore Startup Wants To Make Smart-Homes Affordable To Everyone in India

Coimbatore-based Karsan technologies has decided to make every Indian home smarter than ever with its stellar debut product, Smitch.

Imagine a home which knows you better, understands you better and helps you save your hard-earned money by managing your electricity consumptions without you having to compromise and make changes in your lifestyle. Karsan technologies' Smitch is a tiny WiFi enabled smart module which makes all this possible.

Launched with a mission of making every home in India a smart home by 2030, the extremely compact WiFi enabled smart module goes comfortably behind your switchboard and lets you control your lights, fan and electrical points right through your smartphone (mobile app) or voice (Amazon echo).

How Does It Work?

The Smitch modules has an in-built WiFi chip through which they directly connect to your existing router without requiring any external hub. This particular feature lets you control and monitor your home from anywhere in the world at anytime of the day/night. It meticulously monitors your energy consumption and then provides you with detailed analytics which can help you in cutting down your energy bills significantly.

What Makes Smitch Different From Other Home Automation Products?

Though Smitch faces tough competition in the market from products like Silvan, Oakter, Pert and Homebot etc., but the product holds on its own as unlike other home automation products, it doesn't require a hub to function. This automatically helps in reducing the cost of automation significantly. Karsan technologies claims that Smitch is 30% more affordable than its competitors. In addition to this, Smitch is extremely compact and sits comfortably behind a user's existing switchboard, which means it saves them the trouble of replacing their switchboards or rewiring their existing cables.

The Founders

Karsan technologies was started by two 19-year-old Robotics and Automation engineering students, Sanath Kumar and Pragadheesh Raj in August, 2015. The duo decided to give up the prospects of having cushiony jobs for their love for building products and automation. They decided to leap whole-heartedly into entrepreneurship after the completion of their degree. The duo already have a couple of patents under their names, both combined and individually.

The young duo already owns a patent under their name: Home Automation Controlled Both Manually And Remotely (Patent issuer and number in India 5554/CHE/2015).

Sanath kumar also owns two other patents in the Home automation space viz Automatic Switch Actuation Systems & Economic Energy Management For Telecommunication Towers.

Pragadheesh published his paper 'Flexible Automation System for Industrial Transformer Testing' in the 'International Journal of Advanced Research in Electrical, Electronics and Instrumentation'.

Journey So Far

The startup, which received a whopping Rs.3 crores angel funding in December 2015 within a couple of months of its launch, now has over 400 homes in Coimbatore automated by Smitch. It is currently in the midst of locking in deals with several builders and property developers in Bengaluru, Chennai and Mumbai to be their one stop Home automation provider. With an average conversion rate of around 23 per cent, Smitch numbers have been phenomenal so far.

Plan Ahead

With Smitch already making its presence feel in metropolitan cities like Bengaluru, Mumbai and Chennai, Karsan technologies plans to expand the joy of affordable home automation to several other cities across India by the end of the 2017-18 FY.

Website: http://mysmitch.com/
App: https://appsto.re/in/jZ7_fb.i

Mumbai-Based 'Fox Domotics' Aims To Automate India's Homes, Offices and Hotels

All of us want nothing less than the best for our houses; providing a helping hand to people in achieving this is a Mumbai based Home automation product manufacturing startup called Fox Domotics. Starting its journey in the year 2012, the company is now claiming to have emerged as India's Leading Brand for creation of energy-efficient, sophisticated, simple to use and reliable products like lighting control solutions, motorized blinds, tubular motors, LED / Plasma TV lifts, projector lifts and motorized projector screens for use at residential, offices, retail, hospitality and public spaces. The startup is especially known in the market for manufacturing of Wifi Light Switches, Touch Switches and Hotel Room Automation Switches.

The startup aims to use its expertise in research and development to engineer the sophisticated product developments which are more famously known as the 'Smart Systems'. With each passing day, technology is getting better and smarter and becoming a more and more intrusive part of a human being's life. The Fox Domotics team is working to stay at pace with these technological advancements and keep developing new breeds of 'Smart System' which could easily to blend in to the surroundings. Fox Domotics has solutions for Home Automation, Conference Room Automation and Hotel Room Automation.

The Founder

Mohammed Sikander Manihar is the man who single-handedly converted Fox Domotics from just an idea on a paper to a successful home automation company. An electronic engineer by degree, Manihar started his career in the year 2005 and gained vast experience in product design and development, and software development. For a long time since starting working, Manihar had a vision of replacing the old tic-tok switches with new touch switches which would be durable and shock proof even with wet hands. This very vision persuaded him to start Fox Domotics in 2012.

A 100% Made in India company, all of Fox Domotics products are retro fit and made at a factory located in Vasai near to Mumbai. Since the products are retro fit, all a user is required to do is simply replace their old switch to their crystal glass finished WiFi touch switches. The user is provided with all the three control like IR Remote, Touch and Mobile apps. One of the best part of the startup's products is that the users don't have to go through the trouble of changing their electrical wiring as Fox Domotics' products can be easily installed on the existing/old wiring.

While the startup does face a stiff competition from other home automation startups like Zwave, Zigbee, Control4, Creston, Honeywell and others, but it is the only Wifi product manufacturer in India.



One of the features that makes Fox Domotics switches stand apart from others in the market is its attractive crystal glass finish. Further, it provides all of three controls i.e. touch, IR remote and Mobile control with just one single hardware device, which is something no other company has been able to achieve till date. It is a standalone device, meaning unlike other company’s automation which require multiple devices to achieve a functionality, it can achieve the same with just one device. In addition to all this, it comes with a 3 years manufacturing warranty.

The startup is completely into pure retro fit with products from 2 modules, 3 modules, 4 modules, 6 modules and 12 modules, all available as WiFi touch switches.

Even though the startup is not funded till now, it has been successful in building a dealer network in almost all major cities in India. In fact, Fox Domotics has also exported its WiFi Touch Switches to UAE, Oman and Sri Lanka. The company is currently in the midst of setting up its sales office for Middle East countries in Dubai.

10 Promising Home Automation Startups in India

With technological advancements in several developing countries across the globe, home automation solutions are evolving continuously and is used in a variety of applications across residential, commercial and hospitality segments. Home automation systems refer to all such systems, whether used as a single application or as integrated solutions that are used to automate processes (such as turning on the AC, dimming lights, managing entrance gate and cameras, operating smart appliances in a house, and so on).

According to a report published by RedSeer Consulting, Home automation market in India is rapidly growing and is expected to reach INR 8800 crores by 2017. The key growth drivers for this demand are increasing consumer awareness and financial ability, product innovations (like smart phone apps), builders’ requirement for market differentiation and an increase in the preference for energy efficient systems. There are many players in this field such as Oakter, Inoho, IFIHOMES.com, Silvan Innovation Labs, eDomotics, SharpNode, Home Brain, MSK Technology, Thasmai Automation and Metagan among others.

Here is a brief description about all of them:

1. Oakter

Oakter, a tech startup based out of Noida, was founded in 2014 by IITians Varun Gupta, Nithin David and Shishir Gupta. The startup is resolving technology issues faced by Indian homes. The company innovates and manufactures plug & play smart home products. Oakter products smarten existing home appliances such that they can be controlled better and managed remotely using Oakter mobile app.

Using the Oakter Hub, a smart plug, plugged-in sensors, and the mobile app, a person can smarten 40 different types of home appliances that include AC, Water Heater, Water Motor, Mosquito Repellant, fish tank, lamps etc. Oakter elevates life by better home management.

The product pricing starts at INR 2,800, which lets users control one low powered home appliance like coffee machine. Users can start with one or two home appliance and then keep growing their smart-home experience.

Company’s sales and marketing is primarily through online channels, the product is available on e-commerce platforms Flipkart and Amazon though maximum sales are through their own website. Oakter website offers make your own smart-home option which can help customers customize their smart home as per their specific needs.

Mr. Shishir Gupta, CEO of Oakter said, “We believe IoT will bring about similar productivity gains for home environment in the next 10 years, as seen in work environment after the advent of PCs and Internet. Home appliances haven’t improved much in last 30 years, but times they are going to change very soon."

The company received funding from India-Quotient, Spice Group, Sachin Bansal, Binny Bansal, Rajul Garg and few other angel investors.

2. Inoho

Bangalore-based Inoho was founded in January 2014 by Deep Singh (IIT Guwahati), and Deepankar Garg (IIT Guwahati, IIM Ahmedabad). It later roped in Gagan Singh into its founding team as well.

Inoho is a product in the smart-homes space. It allows users to control light, fans, geysers, ACs etc. from the smartphone, and this can be done even over the internet, giving the user the access to his home from anywhere in the world. The user can schedule, time or just set moods for his place.

Inoho is bootstrapped so far. The startup monetizes by selling the product and also by adding value added services.

3. IFIHOMES.com

Started in 2013, Bangalore-based IFIHomes.com is a company focusing on the distribution of technology powered Smart Living product to Indian consumers.

Talking about their initial days, IFIHOMES.com’s Founder Rohit Khosla mentioned on the company’s website that “We started with just an idea and a passion to make life simple and secure of people around us. Being a technocrat we are promoting technology to make that happen. Our vision and desire is to educate society about the products and solution that would help them live a better life. As the market is in the early stage and not many reliable and genuine products are available to an end consumer, hence we have also taken up the initiative to promote quality products and services to make living simple and secure. We emphasize the idea of DIY (do it yourself) as part of the education. Most of the products that we are promoting are simple and hence can be installed with little/basic electrical switch install knowledge.”

The company only sell and deliver 100% quality products with warranty. And as of now, It only ship within India. The firm has started building up its inventory with Switches, light bulbs, Solar lights, and Accessories, it also have a wide range of Network Cameras for both indoor and outdoor use. It also plan on adding more products within the near future with a promise to serve you the best you could be served.

4. Silvan Innovation Labs

Bengaluru-based home-automation solutions firm Silvan Innovation Labs was launched in 2008 and develops video surveillance, analytics and home automation solutions products. Its products have been used by companies such as Sobha, Brigade, Nambiar Builders, Total Environment, Tata Housing, and Lodha, according to Silvan’s website.

The startup, which has raised a total of Rs 13.5 crore since its inception, has recently unveiled four new smart-home consumer products that it has been working on for the past two years. These include CBell, a WiFi video doorbell, which calls the owner's phone when the doorbell is pressed, and Secure, an app-enabled security system, which secures the home against unwanted intrusions including safety hazards such as gas leakages and fires.

"We also have entertainment oriented products like the zPly, which is a digital music zoning system that streams and plays centrally stored music anywhere within the house, and Lumos, an easy retrofit light automation which can automatically dim and brighten lights in different parts of the house through a few taps on a smartphone; this can also be used through conventional switches," said Avinash Gautam, CEO of Silvan Innovation Labs.

The company's USP is that its products are cost effective, with a price range of Rs 12,000-50,000, resulting in traction in tier-2 and tier-3 towns.

5. SharpNode

SharpNode (formerly Electoint) is a startup company founded in June 2014 by Mohit Agnihotri. Currently, it has a product which monitor homes and provides control and security over electric appliances through smartphone or laptop installed SharpNode application.

SharpNode is based on the ground of Internet of things. Working on products involving microprocessors, microcontrollers, sensors, integrated circuits, wireless devices like wlan, Bluetooth, etc, which are fundamental components for connecting things around you to a cloud based internet - In simple, Make Things Magical. The firm aims at building its business by delivering effective solutions based on innovative technologies and solutions.

“We all are smart enough to know that today’s market is overflowing with startups and beginner’s companies. Few global players have been listed. Explore all of them, and realize soon that none of them provide the solution with such an affordable price with no compromise in quality and reliability. Following 'Make in India' we have ‘VALUE FOR MONEY’ products. Sooner, our next range of products will evolve from nowhere but the scratch, which we will MAKE IN INDIA,” added Mohit.

6. Home Brain

Gurgaon-based Home Brain is the brainchild of NetWorld Inc, a leading IT enabled automation consulting, designing and integration company with hands-on experience in today’s technology arena. Its products include - Security Brain, Lighting Brain, Entertainment Brain, Climate Brain and Appliance Brain which helps in energy & water saving, enhance equipment life, keep informed about the parameters to help timely troubleshooting, eliminates the need of heavy manpower, ensures safety & security, and make it easy for you to control desired automation.

7. Cubical Labs

New Delhi-based Cubical Labs is a young startup born out of research endeavors of three IIT-Guwahati graduates - Swati Vyas, Dhruv Ratra and Rahul Bhatnagar. Founded in November 2013 by the young trio, the startup offers solutions that revolves around building a wireless, cost effective, safe and smart home solution, all of which can be controlled remotely through a mobile device. Cubical Labs offers solution for - Controlling Electrical Appliances from anywhere in the world, Monitoring the energy usage, Integration with multiple platforms such as IP cameras, curtain closer monitors.

The startup has patented communication protocol, Cube-R which it claims to be more suitable for the Indian market because of less data consumption and it’s ability to integrate with other protocols. They started their major operations in Delhi – NCR and Mumbai a year back and have established a wide network of distributors and dealers in 5 states (14 cities ) in India, and till the of this year. The startup aims to expand to 20 states along with a few south east Asian and Middle Eastern countries.

8. Thasmai Automation

Bangalore-based Thasmai offers home automation solutions for you by making the products and systems you already have and use every day work together. By integrating everything from lighting controls, music, home theater, climate control, security - even iPads, iPhones and Android smartphones and tablets - a smart house by Thasmai creates personalized experiences that enhance your life and provide added comfort, savings, convenience and peace of mind. It provides Automation solutions for Home segment, Lighting Automation and Safety & security (including CCTV, Fire Alarm, Public addressing, and Access & Attendance systems) solutions for corporate clients.

Founded in 2010 by Karigirish Murthy, Thasmai is one of the emerging players in India's home automation market. Having its presence in 8 major cities of India, Thasmai partnered with the best in breed companies for all its solutions; ranging from Philips & Crabtree for lighting automation, to Harman International (JBL, Revel, Infiniti, Synthesis) for Home Entertainment Solutions to Honeywell for home security solutions.

9. Metagan Technologies Private Limited

Bengaluru-based Metagan is focusing on providing international standard automation products and solutions, spread across different domains and geographies. It is an early stage startup working on modular IoT solutions for your house by reinventing the hardware & software platforms for IoT by leveraging native patented technologies & open source technologies. The startup was founded in 2015 by Ganesh Prasad Kumble.

Its product - Mera™ Zoom Security Systems is used for safety and security. The product’s features include:

• Zoom is Plug & Play: Plug it to your ordinary bulb socket & it just works!


• Zoom is Modular: It acts as a security camera, light & an alarm!


• NO DVRs Required: Yes, you read it right. Zoom doesn’t require a DVR to store the photos/videos. Just link your Dropbox account & you can access photos/videos “On the GO”! Media is captured only when there is a motion; So you don’t have to spend time browsing 24 hrs content.


• One time payment: Pay once. You’re all set. No annual fees / charges.

"The aim of Metagan Technologies is to provide simple, secure & standard automation solutions to the world. This requires collaboration and partnership among people and organizations with a shared vision of what could be. Our organization's commitment is evident in our ever advanced global portfolio and ever-ready focus on customer's requirements & designing intuitive solutions. We look forward to working alongside our customers and stakeholders to mark a positive, measurable and lasting contribution to our planet and our society,” added Ganesh.

10. eDomotics

Hyderabad-based eDomotics was started in 2012 by Ganesh Vudutha, a mechanical engineer and Keshava Varma, an electronics engineer. eDomotics is a lifestyle company, inspired and driven by ideas that promise - comfort, convenience, security & safety. The company provides a one stop solution for your end-to-end automation needs - consulting, planning, system design, installation and service. Be it lighting, appliances, entertainment systems, air-conditioning, curtains, sprinklers or surveillance cameras at your home, its solutions provides you the convenience to control it from just a click of a button. You can also accesses and control all of these from your mobile smart phone or internet.

“With a motive to provide the most optimal solution to our clients, we ensure that we are up to date with the latest and emerging home automation technologies and have partnered with the best of the breed automation providers in the industry,” the company mentioned on its website.

10 Promising Home Automation Startups in India

With technological advancements in several developing countries across the globe, home automation solutions are evolving continuously and is used in a variety of applications across residential, commercial and hospitality segments. Home automation systems refer to all such systems, whether used as a single application or as integrated solutions that are used to automate processes (such as turning on the AC, dimming lights, managing entrance gate and cameras, operating smart appliances in a house, and so on).

According to a report published by RedSeer Consulting, Home automation market in India is rapidly growing and is expected to reach INR 8800 crores by 2017. The key growth drivers for this demand are increasing consumer awareness and financial ability, product innovations (like smart phone apps), builders’ requirement for market differentiation and an increase in the preference for energy efficient systems. There are many players in this field such as Oakter, Inoho, IFIHOMES.com, Silvan Innovation Labs, eDomotics, SharpNode, Home Brain, MSK Technology, Thasmai Automation and Metagan among others.

Here is a brief description about all of them:

1. Oakter

Oakter, a tech startup based out of Noida, was founded in 2014 by IITians Varun Gupta, Nithin David and Shishir Gupta. The startup is resolving technology issues faced by Indian homes. The company innovates and manufactures plug & play smart home products. Oakter products smarten existing home appliances such that they can be controlled better and managed remotely using Oakter mobile app.

Using the Oakter Hub, a smart plug, plugged-in sensors, and the mobile app, a person can smarten 40 different types of home appliances that include AC, Water Heater, Water Motor, Mosquito Repellant, fish tank, lamps etc. Oakter elevates life by better home management.

The product pricing starts at INR 2,800, which lets users control one low powered home appliance like coffee machine. Users can start with one or two home appliance and then keep growing their smart-home experience.

Company’s sales and marketing is primarily through online channels, the product is available on e-commerce platforms Flipkart and Amazon though maximum sales are through their own website. Oakter website offers make your own smart-home option which can help customers customize their smart home as per their specific needs.

Mr. Shishir Gupta, CEO of Oakter said, “We believe IoT will bring about similar productivity gains for home environment in the next 10 years, as seen in work environment after the advent of PCs and Internet. Home appliances haven’t improved much in last 30 years, but times they are going to change very soon."

The company received funding from India-Quotient, Spice Group, Sachin Bansal, Binny Bansal, Rajul Garg and few other angel investors.

2. Inoho

Bangalore-based Inoho was founded in January 2014 by Deep Singh (IIT Guwahati), and Deepankar Garg (IIT Guwahati, IIM Ahmedabad). It later roped in Gagan Singh into its founding team as well.

Inoho is a product in the smart-homes space. It allows users to control light, fans, geysers, ACs etc. from the smartphone, and this can be done even over the internet, giving the user the access to his home from anywhere in the world. The user can schedule, time or just set moods for his place.

Inoho is bootstrapped so far. The startup monetizes by selling the product and also by adding value added services.

3. IFIHOMES.com

Started in 2013, Bangalore-based IFIHomes.com is a company focusing on the distribution of technology powered Smart Living product to Indian consumers.

Talking about their initial days, IFIHOMES.com’s Founder Rohit Khosla mentioned on the company’s website that “We started with just an idea and a passion to make life simple and secure of people around us. Being a technocrat we are promoting technology to make that happen. Our vision and desire is to educate society about the products and solution that would help them live a better life. As the market is in the early stage and not many reliable and genuine products are available to an end consumer, hence we have also taken up the initiative to promote quality products and services to make living simple and secure. We emphasize the idea of DIY (do it yourself) as part of the education. Most of the products that we are promoting are simple and hence can be installed with little/basic electrical switch install knowledge.”

The company only sell and deliver 100% quality products with warranty. And as of now, It only ship within India. The firm has started building up its inventory with Switches, light bulbs, Solar lights, and Accessories, it also have a wide range of Network Cameras for both indoor and outdoor use. It also plan on adding more products within the near future with a promise to serve you the best you could be served.

4. Silvan Innovation Labs

Bengaluru-based home-automation solutions firm Silvan Innovation Labs was launched in 2008 and develops video surveillance, analytics and home automation solutions products. Its products have been used by companies such as Sobha, Brigade, Nambiar Builders, Total Environment, Tata Housing, and Lodha, according to Silvan’s website.

The startup, which has raised a total of Rs 13.5 crore since its inception, has recently unveiled four new smart-home consumer products that it has been working on for the past two years. These include CBell, a WiFi video doorbell, which calls the owner's phone when the doorbell is pressed, and Secure, an app-enabled security system, which secures the home against unwanted intrusions including safety hazards such as gas leakages and fires.

"We also have entertainment oriented products like the zPly, which is a digital music zoning system that streams and plays centrally stored music anywhere within the house, and Lumos, an easy retrofit light automation which can automatically dim and brighten lights in different parts of the house through a few taps on a smartphone; this can also be used through conventional switches," said Avinash Gautam, CEO of Silvan Innovation Labs.

The company's USP is that its products are cost effective, with a price range of Rs 12,000-50,000, resulting in traction in tier-2 and tier-3 towns.

5. SharpNode

SharpNode (formerly Electoint) is a startup company founded in June 2014 by Mohit Agnihotri. Currently, it has a product which monitor homes and provides control and security over electric appliances through smartphone or laptop installed SharpNode application.

SharpNode is based on the ground of Internet of things. Working on products involving microprocessors, microcontrollers, sensors, integrated circuits, wireless devices like wlan, Bluetooth, etc, which are fundamental components for connecting things around you to a cloud based internet - In simple, Make Things Magical. The firm aims at building its business by delivering effective solutions based on innovative technologies and solutions.

“We all are smart enough to know that today’s market is overflowing with startups and beginner’s companies. Few global players have been listed. Explore all of them, and realize soon that none of them provide the solution with such an affordable price with no compromise in quality and reliability. Following 'Make in India' we have ‘VALUE FOR MONEY’ products. Sooner, our next range of products will evolve from nowhere but the scratch, which we will MAKE IN INDIA,” added Mohit.

6. Home Brain

Gurgaon-based Home Brain is the brainchild of NetWorld Inc, a leading IT enabled automation consulting, designing and integration company with hands-on experience in today’s technology arena. Its products include - Security Brain, Lighting Brain, Entertainment Brain, Climate Brain and Appliance Brain which helps in energy & water saving, enhance equipment life, keep informed about the parameters to help timely troubleshooting, eliminates the need of heavy manpower, ensures safety & security, and make it easy for you to control desired automation.

7. Cubical Labs

New Delhi-based Cubical Labs is a young startup born out of research endeavors of three IIT-Guwahati graduates - Swati Vyas, Dhruv Ratra and Rahul Bhatnagar. Founded in November 2013 by the young trio, the startup offers solutions that revolves around building a wireless, cost effective, safe and smart home solution, all of which can be controlled remotely through a mobile device. Cubical Labs offers solution for - Controlling Electrical Appliances from anywhere in the world, Monitoring the energy usage, Integration with multiple platforms such as IP cameras, curtain closer monitors.

The startup has patented communication protocol, Cube-R which it claims to be more suitable for the Indian market because of less data consumption and it’s ability to integrate with other protocols. They started their major operations in Delhi – NCR and Mumbai a year back and have established a wide network of distributors and dealers in 5 states (14 cities ) in India, and till the of this year. The startup aims to expand to 20 states along with a few south east Asian and Middle Eastern countries.

8. Thasmai Automation

Bangalore-based Thasmai offers home automation solutions for you by making the products and systems you already have and use every day work together. By integrating everything from lighting controls, music, home theater, climate control, security - even iPads, iPhones and Android smartphones and tablets - a smart house by Thasmai creates personalized experiences that enhance your life and provide added comfort, savings, convenience and peace of mind. It provides Automation solutions for Home segment, Lighting Automation and Safety & security (including CCTV, Fire Alarm, Public addressing, and Access & Attendance systems) solutions for corporate clients.

Founded in 2010 by Karigirish Murthy, Thasmai is one of the emerging players in India's home automation market. Having its presence in 8 major cities of India, Thasmai partnered with the best in breed companies for all its solutions; ranging from Philips & Crabtree for lighting automation, to Harman International (JBL, Revel, Infiniti, Synthesis) for Home Entertainment Solutions to Honeywell for home security solutions.

9. Metagan Technologies Private Limited

Bengaluru-based Metagan is focusing on providing international standard automation products and solutions, spread across different domains and geographies. It is an early stage startup working on modular IoT solutions for your house by reinventing the hardware & software platforms for IoT by leveraging native patented technologies & open source technologies. The startup was founded in 2015 by Ganesh Prasad Kumble.

Its product - Mera™ Zoom Security Systems is used for safety and security. The product’s features include:

• Zoom is Plug & Play: Plug it to your ordinary bulb socket & it just works!


• Zoom is Modular: It acts as a security camera, light & an alarm!


• NO DVRs Required: Yes, you read it right. Zoom doesn’t require a DVR to store the photos/videos. Just link your Dropbox account & you can access photos/videos “On the GO”! Media is captured only when there is a motion; So you don’t have to spend time browsing 24 hrs content.


• One time payment: Pay once. You’re all set. No annual fees / charges.

"The aim of Metagan Technologies is to provide simple, secure & standard automation solutions to the world. This requires collaboration and partnership among people and organizations with a shared vision of what could be. Our organization's commitment is evident in our ever advanced global portfolio and ever-ready focus on customer's requirements & designing intuitive solutions. We look forward to working alongside our customers and stakeholders to mark a positive, measurable and lasting contribution to our planet and our society,” added Ganesh.

10. eDomotics

Hyderabad-based eDomotics was started in 2012 by Ganesh Vudutha, a mechanical engineer and Keshava Varma, an electronics engineer. eDomotics is a lifestyle company, inspired and driven by ideas that promise - comfort, convenience, security & safety. The company provides a one stop solution for your end-to-end automation needs - consulting, planning, system design, installation and service. Be it lighting, appliances, entertainment systems, air-conditioning, curtains, sprinklers or surveillance cameras at your home, its solutions provides you the convenience to control it from just a click of a button. You can also accesses and control all of these from your mobile smart phone or internet.

“With a motive to provide the most optimal solution to our clients, we ensure that we are up to date with the latest and emerging home automation technologies and have partnered with the best of the breed automation providers in the industry,” the company mentioned on its website.