As the decades have passed, both the need and cost of electricity has skyrocketed. However, the electricity distribution infrastructure, especially in India, has failed to innovate with the times and has thus, caused distortions in the power sector of the country. IoT startup- Probus Smart Things hopes to eliminate this problem, and bring some 2020 future magic to the electric grid of India.
Its goal has got the attention of Unicorn India Ventures, which has announced to invest an undisclosed amount of money into the startup as part of a seed round. This will mark the 4th investment of the venture fund’s Rs 400 crore Fund II.
The company’s IoT based solution will allow it to provide electricity distribution utilities that will help it achieve distribution grid analytics and automation. This will allow a more accurate, more efficient distribution of electricity along with quicker restoration of electricity after power disturbances. This in turn will help it to offer reduced operations and management costs for utilities, and ultimately lower power costs for consumers.
Probus in the business of developing integrated hardware and software solutions for utility providers and offers services like asset management, outage management, energy management, operations management and smart metering. It aims to increase the per capita consumption of electricity in India by 10X, which is presently 1/3 of the global average- by reducing the distribution losses in the Indian electricity distribution grid.
Anand Singh, Co-founder CEO, Probus Smart Things claims that his startup will address the prolific distortions in the power sector of India, which cost the country $86 billion in the year 2016 alone. “Current technologies like SCADA are expensive and not scalable in terms of the size & complexity of India’s electricity distribution grid,” he said, adding that Probus Smart Things’ IoT enabled wireless, modular hardware & data analytics platform, will help cut through these issues. The company will also enable electrical utilities to make last mile connectivity reliable by helping India achieve an efficient electricity grid within a fraction of their current costs.
Anil Joshi, Managing Partner, Unicorn India Ventures also thinks that the electricity distribution infrastructure is ripe with opportunities for innovation and Probus is just the right company to do it. He believes that the startup’s methods will bring down costs and increase operational efficiency, and sees the entire South East Asia as a potential market.
