One of the most debatable topics of this century is ‘Energy saving’. The common public has realised how important it is to use this resource wisely. Get threw away without it. Scientists and researchers are working their minds off to make sustainable sources of energy. This we can reply on, almost indefinitely to cater to our everyday electricity needs. 

But in the meantime, they actually find a way to do that. It is our responsibility to save the energy that we already have. Monish Salhotra, Saswat Sahu and Rajbir Singh from IIT Kharagpur have come up with a solution for this through their start-up E.B.T.L. (Engineer Bringing Technology to Life).

EBTL Product- Amour

The trio focuses on the home automation segment where an ordinary electric switch panel could become a hi-tech but simple to use the device connected to the internet. This Delhi-based start-up is now designing energy automation devices for Indian homes.

It took EBTL, 4.5 years of research to launch its first product Amour, a smart automation device for the energy or electricity segment. This IoT device has a built-in artificial intelligence system to manage the energy needs of a home or commercial establishment. 

The biggest USP for this product is that it is well-suited to Indian conditions. For example, it can be connected to the inverter and energy supply is cut off when there is no primary power source. But this is not the case with other devices in the market, which are largely imported and built for markets that are already developed and hence are very expensive too. Unlike them, Amour can be retrofitted into any existing home or office.

Since the launch of Amour in 2015, EBTL has expanded within India as well as outside India. In the domestic market, it has contracted up with leading hotel chains to install its product and companies that have nationwide showrooms. Besides, it is widely expanding into markets of the United States, Europe, South Africa and Japan through partnerships. In all, it has a presence in over 300 cities which is huge.

EBTL work in R&D

At present, E.B.T.L. has a team of around 35 people with the majority of them working for research and development (R&D). This is done from its Jalandhar office and the entire product is manufactured in India. The evolution of APPLE's flagship product Amour has witnessed numerous functionalities and features being added over the years. It has an intuitive touch interface, which can be used to switch on/off devices. In fact, it has icons instead of switches and also has two USB ports for charging phones.

Monish believes that it is just the beginning for the start-up as he terms the journey a “good effort start-up” until now. Soon, EBTL plans to focus on newer product lines like security and auxiliaries to create a fresh line of smart automation devices.

He said in an interview, ”E.B.T.L. has been doubling its growth since 2015 given the large market opportunity. We are in very active talks with a few investors”. Bootstrapped till now while also being profitable, the start-up is looking at external funding for its expansion plans. 

The team believes that E.B.T.L. will register a revenue of Rs. 20 crores by the end of this financial year. The start-up is targeting Rs. 100 crore revenue by the end of FY21. This huge jump is largely due to large contracts E.B.T.L. has signed recently.