Automation has a power to transform jobs and makes life easier in many industries and everyday lives. In this area of technology that has become crucial in many jobs, an Indian startup called EBTL envisions enormous potential for Automation in different industries/sectors and aims to bring technology to life of a common man. Analytics India Magazine talked to the Founder of EBTL, Mr. Monish Salhotra to know about they journey of EBTL and its growth so far.
The Beginning
The idea of establishing EBTL germinated from a simple thought of making shock-proof switches because one of the co-founding members of the startup was extremely phobic to electric shock. We wanted to build something which would eradicate all possibilities for getting jarred from electric shocks and that thought lead the team to a search for something that could fulfill this need. With some extensive research of the market, they realized that there is a lack of such products and to cater to this need. This is how the journey of EBTL began.
They had always felt that the Home Automation systems market in India was underdeveloped and there was a huge difference in the existing systems and the demand of the consumers. To fill in this gap, they developed Amour, which is user friendly, easy to install and much more advanced automation system. This created an apt market for EBTL products and has been growing exponentially ever since.
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EBTL has a team of about 15 people in the R&D team. This comprises of people with varied skills and expertise including electronic hardware engineers, embedded programmers, app developers, AWS cloud engineers, product designers, product testers, QA/QC, UI/UX and graphic designers.
The automation system designed by EBTL is meant to serve the Indian audience. It has been conceptualized indigenously and has been crafted from the start to serve the automation needs of Indian consumers. This means that products created by EBTL meet best the demands of Indian infrastructure. While other automation systems are often first designed and then realigned to meet the requirements of Indian consumers, EBTL’s home automation systems have been conceived from inception to best serve the demands of the Indian market. This has created a niche for their brand and has proven to be beneficial for their consumers.
Difficulties While Starting EBTL
Every new idea is first met by hurdles and challenges that need to be conquered. Challenges may vary for every start up. For EBTL, the biggest challenge was to educate the market about the automation. Automation segment is full of foreign companies which are very expensive and complex to implement solutions. The people who had installed automation and had invested huge amounts were not able to use automation at all.
According to Mr. Salhotra, instead of making their lives easier it was making it more difficult for the people. The architects were not ready to recommend automation due to its complexity and high pricing. With their Amour Automation, they have tried to solve both the problems of the industry by making Amour an easy to install and operation automation and very much affordable to middle income group families.
Journey So Far
EBTL has had a phenomenal growth rate of 30% annually and are today one of the market leaders in automation sector. They have expanded in five new different countries of Middle East, USA, Africa and South East Asia. The startup aims at revenue of 100+ crore by FY20-21 and have extended their entire product portfolio to these countries as well, including the residential, hotel and commercial place automation. The company recently introduced the sub-series of products which are targeted to be a mass product with very competitive pricing and compact, lightweight designs. Their clientele includes renowned brands like; Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., House of Anita Dongre, OYO Rooms, IIT Indore, Hotel Ramada and many others.
Talking about their experiences in other countries, the Founder said that every country is unique in their own way. “The penetration of automation is increasing year by year. We find it quite encouraging to see people accepting our solutions over their local companies,” he said. EBTL has had western and middle eastern countries as the early adopters, however, India is changing fast and people are becoming more welcoming than ever.
Future Endeavours
When asked if Robotics will take away jobs of people, Mr. Salhotra said that Robotics automation is definitely reducing the human workforce from the industry, but at the same time it’s creating new jobs in the field of machine learning, analytics and through automation services and solution providers. He also expressed that he would like to partner with organizations if they find the right kind of synergies.
The startup is confident about crossing the 100+ crores mark in revenue by 2021. They aim to increase their market size for a broader set of consumers beginning with home and corporate to special products that cater to hospitality and other such businesses across, South East Asia, India, Africa, Middle East and the US. Additionally, they will widen their horizons globally, to reach over 50 countries in the next 2-3 years.
