Spotlight on Internet of Things | TelecomDrive.com
Internet of Things is regarded as one of the fastest moving technologies that is making inroads into enterprise, telecoms and consumer spaces – with its big focus on the IoT space – Smartron is set to offer its innovative product range to address future needs of the society.
Mahesh Lingareddy- Founder and Chairman- Smartron interacts with Zia Askari from TelecomDrive.com on the way Smartron is looking at the burgeoning opportunities in the IoT space and why it is important today.
How do you look at the IoT space and what are your thoughts to tap burgeoning opportunities in this space?
The IoT industry has been moving at an extremely fast pace in the last decade or so. IoT has dramatically enhanced interactions with the things we rely on in our daily lives and has already had a considerable impact in sectors ranging from transportation, healthcare, telecom, automobiles and so on.
There has been a major push by the Govt. of India towards the IoT industry and has come out with a draft IoT policy that aims at building an entire ecosystem around IoT and to incentivise the players in the ecosystem.
In India, we have a large tech talent pool which can work in the IoT sector, across all domains, both software as well as hardware integration. We founded Smartron with a vision to build innovation driven products and platform thereby creating a unique ecosystem. As you are aware IoT is the next big tech wave, we see a huge opportunity, and today we are the first Indian OEM firm that is building a connected ecosystem that will deliver quality experience to users.
We built tronX which is our core, an AI engine that we have been developing over the last 2 years. We intend to deliver a range of highly personalized intelligent experiences through these devices to a variety of occupants, from consumer to enterprise to infrastructure to industrial markets. We did not restrict ourselves to the field of technology or smart devices, we went beyond it and touched upon sectors like education.
In our latest collaboration with University of Southern California’s Center for Human Applied Reasoning & IoT (CHARIOT), our wearables powered by tronX™ will be able to gather and analyze the data to help create the most effective learning interventions for students who may need it, but may not necessarily ask for it.
We wanted to create highly intelligent and customized experiences in the field of education as well. We aim to offer an integrated platform in sectors like Personal, Health, Homes, Infrastructure, Agriculture and many more in the years to come. We look forward to tapping all the sectors we can through IoT and hence this is going to be an extremely important industry for us.
How is Smartron positioning itself as an IoT player? What all products and solutions do you have in this space?
Smartron is the only Indian company building a global IoT brand by bringing tronX™- An assistive and predictive AI platform that combines state of the art AI and IoT capabilities to make us, machines, industries, infrastructure and government more productive, efficient, safer, secure and richer.
Smartron: Primed for an Internet of Things Era
Smartron has developed its own Natural Language Processing (NLP), deep learning and machine learning capabilities to compete at a global stage. TronX™ addresses localization and regionalization in a very unique way to deliver value to all customers.
Built on the world of ‘Internet of Trons’, the ecosystem allows instant access to profile, data, content, services, Cloud, care, community and other IoT devices whether you are at home, in the car or at the office. We have announced four verticals so far: ‘tronX Personal’, ‘tronX Health’, ‘tronX Home’ and ‘tronX Infra’. ‘tronX Personal’ offers personalized entertainment, travel, shopping, financial, health, event, communication and collaboration experiences across devices and contexts.
Mahesh Lingareddy
With ‘tronX Health’, the system monitors and manages medical history, insurance data and offers intuitive and preventive solutions from a range of partners who are already on board. ‘tronX Home’ helps control locking mechanisms, security updates, home appliances, services like water, electricity and payment modules for these services, all available through a Voice Activated Assistant. ‘tronX Infra’ is Smartron’ s B2B vertical, offering an AI-assisted system that covers a range of monitoring and management services, thus increasing productivity and security for enterprises.
We will be bringing in dozens of smart devices and things over the next 12-18 months ranging from wearables to compute and mobile products, electric vehicles as well as smart home products. These products will be connected to the tronX™ core which will lead the AI and Machine Learning space and help us build a robust ecosystem with some consumer oriented services built into the mix.
How do you plan to work closely with telecom players and enterprise in terms of bringing these products and solutions to the market?
We already have many companies that have partnered with us in delivering innovative hardware and software solutions. We ensure deep integration of their services in the tronx. This will ensure a seamless experience for the customer. One can look at a single point access rather than wading through multiple apps. Tronx will intelligently map your preferences and suggest the best option that is suited to the user. The device operates independently as long as it is connected to a network. Having said that telecom partners are crucial to the ecosystem. Wherever there are synergies we will collaborate.
We are currently in talks with various Indian institutions to help with research in a variety of areas like Industrial IoT, Agricultural IoT, Smart Cities, health and fitness, etc. We will announce them when they materialise
What are some of the big innovations that we can expect from Smartron in the space of IoT?
We are constantly striving to provide products and solutions with the best innovations and technology. tronX is our core engine that we have been developing over the last 2 years. That is our AI engine. It glues all our devices and ecosystem together.
We recently announced the roll out ‘Qualcomm Mesh Networking Platform’ for IoT connected homes in India. The ‘Mesh Wi-Fi’ platform will include ‘Qualcomm Wi-Fi SON (Self Organizing Network) Feature suite’, which is designed to ensure corner to corner Wi-Fi coverage in a house. The platform will enable rollout of new home automation devices and products for consumers in the next few months.
As mentioned earlier, we will be bringing in dozens of smart devices and things over the next 12-18 months ranging from wearables to compute and mobile products, electric vehicles as well as smart home products and all these products will be connected to the tronX™ core.
IoT is going to get even bigger as we move ahead towards a 5G era – what are your thoughts on this? Please share some of the big IoT use cases that can expand the market envelope even bigger?
IoT is the network of smart devices, software and sensors connected by a network which enable these objects to collect and exchange data, therefore connectivity becomes the backbone of the entire IoT system. With 5G coming in, consumers can be connected on a faster network providing a seamless integration across devices.
While this will continue to enhance the communication experiences between individuals, the focus of the technology will be on creating channels of communication for things-to-things and humans-to-things. Therefore, the Internet of Things (IoT) is the centerpiece of the 5G era. Looking at the awareness wave on IoT that has been spreading and the use cases it presents to Indian businesses and consumers, 5G will surely open a new era of opportunities for the IOT ecosystem in India.
Please share some of the big IoT use cases that can expand the market envelope even bigger?
In the next 6 months you will see some applications from Smartron that will bring huge savings and ease of application for our customers at the enterprise level through innovation in our infra vertical.
We will also be looking at collaboration in the health vertical that has the potential to be a game changer for the consumer. These are a few initial stages innovation that will redefine the consumer experience in the connected space in the near term.
How important is IoT space for Smartron and what kind of revenues you plan to generate from this space?
The Indian market has been adapting to the IoT ecosystem at a fast pace. We have seen startups lead with innovative technology across various industries in the IoT sector. Many Indian and global companies have been working using IoT for security, infrastructure technology helping road traffic regulations, minimizing accidents of vehicles, enhanced technology to make smart devices at home and work and much more.
We are an OEM and IOT is our space, we intent to deliver a range of highly personalized intelligent experiences through connected ecosystem to a variety of occupants, from consumer to enterprise to infrastructure to industrial markets. We are going to launch products across various categories which will be powered by tronX. Hence it is an extremely crucial space for us.
Smartron, in the last two years, went from inception to 200+ team, raised 100Cr+ investment capital and clocked 50Cr+ revenues in its first fiscal. We plan on investing 1500 crores over the next two years. We have just closed a funding of ₹250 crore in March 2017 and are going to raise ₹600 crore this fiscal year to fund our expansion plans.
