IIT Bombay prof led kSPL receives $500K funding from real estate house in Indore
Incubated in SINE, IIT Bombay, kWatt Solutions Pvt. Ltd. (kSPL) which aims to economize renewables, received a funding of $0.5 million from a real estate house in Indore. With solar energy booming in India and clean energy currently in focus, kSPL is tapping into this sector with a vision to make renewable energy affordable and economically viable for all.
IIT Bombay professor, Dr Chetan Singh Solanki founded kSPL which has now grown into six verticals capturing the length and breadth of the domains in the field of solar energy.
Dr. Chetan Singh Solanki says,
We believe that being associated with an academic institution like IIT Bombay has ensured that the kSPL team is constantly updated and evolving with the latest technology in solar energy giving it the required technical edge and superior quality. We will use the funds to grow exponentially in the verticals and expand in terms of business and team.
Initiated in September 2013, kSPL is a technology-driven company with a vision to “solarize” the future of India and economize renewables. With the expertise of a strong core team comprising of IIT Bombay graduates, kSPL offers customized comprehensive solar energy solutions right from design and engineering to installation and maintenance with in-house training for people in the solar industry.
kSPL was initiated with the idea to cater to the huge open market of power consumers in the kilowatt range, which also resonates with the company’s name.
The six verticals and affordable solar products by kSPL
Currently, kSPL has six verticals in sync with its vision; S-Park, S-Life, S-SparQ, S-Entrepreneur, S-Rooftop and S-Lab. Using S-Park, one can 'own' and 'invest' in a solar power plant. Today, kSPL has tapped into megawatt scale power generation providing turnkey solar energy solutions by redefining the concept of Solar Park. Currently under concept stage, S-Life is a series of unique solar powered campuses which are used for dual purposes, solar training and recreation. S-SparQ is a set of customized training modules to impart theoretical and practical knowledge and make students 'solar smart'.
Under the vertical S-Entrepreneur, people are empowered with business acumen by training to reach out to remote places to eventually solarize pan India. With guaranteed solar plant performance and assured returns, S-Rooftop is a lucrative financial model for both the person wanting to install solar power and the investor. S-Lab is a comprehensive range of state of the art solar laboratory setups developed in-house by the kSPL tech team. A one-of-a-kind low cost spectral response kit is now developed as a part of this S-Lab.
In addition to these, kSPL has also developed a range of low cost solar battery chargers under the banner “battery solarizer” (www.batterysolarizer.com). These chargers boast of fast charging and an inbuilt compass to aid perfect orientation of the solar panel for efficient charging. Other products include a solar fountain, solar dustbin and a solar hybrid cycle. Atul Kumar Jain (ex-IITB), Head R&D team kSPL, says, “Currently, the focus of the kSPL product development team is to deliver the best quality and efficiency with minimal cost.”
Current projects of kSPL and future plans
In the one-and-half years since its conception, kSPL has successfully established the business and lit up the lives of as many as 10,000 people and successfully executed many projects in the kW range; the latest being a 100 kW grid connected solar plant at GNIT, Hyderabad. kSPL has already sold 2000 Aakash chargers and 25 multipurpose chargers to IIT Bombay and 50 home lighting systems to Tata Trust.
It has also grown rapidly from a small team of three in 2013 to a diverse multifunctional team of 30 in 2015 handling the domains of design, engineering and marketing. Also a branch office of kSPL in Indore is now functional.
Since its inception, the kSPL has very strong foundation with its design capabilities, technically sound products and skilled team of people and due to this Dr. Chetan Singh Solanki believes that it will grow exponentially owing to the ever increasing demand of solar power projects in India in the kW and MW scale. Talking about future plans, he has expressed the desire to identify the opportunities in the six verticals and capitalize on them.
With an ambitious plan to achieve the ambitious 100 GW installed capacity of solar power by 2022 as envisioned by MNRE, these are exciting times ahead for the solar energy sector in India, and kSPL is one of the fastest growing startups to look out for in the near future.