iRAM Technologies rides on Smart Home

By Nandita Singh

From the Startup Series

iRAM Technologies, the company that came into existence with an objective to develop Femto Cells for 4G technologies in 2009 and went on to develop complete protocol stack for LTE was soon discouraged by the market reality, as even 3G was not fully deployed in 2009. Realizing that the product was ahead of the market, a painful course correction was made. The founding team of Syam Madanapalli, Satyanarayana DV, UdayaBhaskar Rao Abburu, Idris Vasi and Sudhakar Kanuri decided to concentrate on other innovative technologies to connect various objects to the Internet for seamless and real-time access.

iRAM Technologies hooked on to the concept of Internet of Things (IoT) in the early 2009 in India. But it was again a new, emerging area and with no funding in sight the company had to fall back on the resources of its founders to move ahead.

“We licensed our technology to a US-based company to introduce first BLE based Home Automation system. That was our first revenue in the year 2010,” informs Udayabhaskar Abburu, co-founder & MD of iRAM Technologies. The company continued to innovate and develop WiFi based Home and Building automation systems and ZigBee- based Street Light automation systems.

“Our Home automation solutions are commercially deployed across India in multiple cities and Streetlight systems are undergoing trials in many sites. We did not face any resistance from the market for our Home Automation Solutions, as these are more advanced as compared to the existing solutions and are easy to deploy. We have even won projects that were promised to other competitors who are using traditional old wired technologies. Our main USP of Retro fitment helped us in securing existing contracts given to other competition,” says Udayabhaskar.

Internet is entering into its next phase of growth connecting objects (Sensors, Objects, Devices, Appliances, etc.) for automation, management and control. The number of things connected would be trillions in number and would dwarf the existing number of devices connected to the Internet of Things (IoT). IoT helps create smart communication environments such as smart homes, smart shopping, smart transportation, smart agriculture and smart healthcare. This is what the company is leveraging on.

iRAM has already deployed Smart Home and Building Lighting control and Smart Street Light control systems at sites. The company has filed for two patents and has successfully developed solutions for Dept of Information Technology to set up a laboratory to showcase the IoT usage in agriculture, health care, building automation. iRAM was funded by NIXI for this project.

iRAM’s products have open IP interfaces. “Our products can interwork with any open IP standards based third party devices to form a complete solution, says Udayabhaskar elaborating that iRAM’s Building automation products are based on WiFi and can retro fit into existing buildings, hence there is no need of rewiring or additional wiring inside the buildings. “Our current solutions are based on GSM technologies,” says Udayabhaskar.

The company is in a sweet spot of WiFi based Building automation with complete network solution. In the Street Light automation, iRAM product and solutions are being received well by customers in Europe as well. iRAM is ready for scale.

Today, iRAM Technologies is in a sweet spot of WiFi-based building automation with complete network solution and is working with a number of real estate developers

Top Challenges

• Technology & Innovation: Many startups have come up in the IoT space over a period of last 2 years. IRAM’s main challenge is stay ahead of all others for which it is innovating in multiple product categories in home automation.
• Funding: Getting VC funding and strategic partners on board in order to thrive in this market.
• Market Reach: Reaching out to the global market for selling its products and solutions.

Company: iRAM Technologies; Year of Establishment: 2009

No of people employed: 18

Founders: Syam Madanapalli, Satyanarayana D.V, UdayaBhaskar Rao Abburu, Idris Vasi (Singapore), Sudhakar Kanuri (US)

(iRAM Technologies bagged the Voice&Data Editor’s Choice Emerging Company of the Year 2014 Award)