I-Bo or Intelligent Bottle started by Anto Patrex and team is a college start up incubated by Kerala Start Up Mission. This venture promises to solve one of the most pressing issues – safe drinking water.
Give a brief info about your startup?
Our motto is to make the best quality products by utilizing innovative technologies that are completely user-friendly, economical, and solves common man’s problem. We have been working on several projects over the last one year, including projects on Smart Pot, I-Bo & Bio Volt. In 2017, we received an Idea Grant of Rupees 2 Lakh from Kerala Start-Up Mission (KSUM) and subsequently got incubated under it.
Other Products in Pipeline:
Alpha, Beta & Gamma versions of i-Bo
Smart Pot
Bio-Volt
Water crisis is going to be a serious problem in the future and we have the cheapest yet most efficient solution for it. I am very much excited to introduce our product to the market. It will not only influence the lives of people but also make our future generations healthier.
What made you start your startup and what problem does it solve?
There are over 7.2 billion people in this planet and each year 320 million people die of water related issues. About 3.2 billion mineral water bottles are wasted in India alone. Potable water and plastic pollution has been the major crisis faced by our community over the past decade. Creating a solution to this crisis has been hovering over our minds for a few months which led us to the idea of an intelligent bottle (i-Bo).
Our bottle has two versions the Alpha version is a foldable silicone bottle with an inbuilt organic filter that can filter out any water (except saline water) and bring it to BIS standard. The other version is the i-Bo Beta which is completely made of stainless steel. It has an inbuilt filter that is placed at the center bottom at the base of the bottle. It filters out all the impurities, including sediments, microbial organisms, bad chemicals & odour causing agents. Our bottle replenishes the 0.75 liters of water and makes it completely pure for drinking. The bottle once emptied can be refilled with pipe water which will be purified in few minutes.
Tell us about yourself, your previous jobs/ventures? What were you doing before this startup?
We are a team of ten students with two Co-Founders Thomas Cyriac & myself Anto P. Biju studying at St. Joseph’s College of Engineering & Technology, Palai. With an aim of solving common, pressing issues faced by public in their daily lives, we started Lamaara in 2016.
Where is your startup based out of? Why do you think that is the best place for you?
Our start up is based out of Kochi. As students KSUM is providing us all the necessary requirements to sustain us in the start-up ecosystem. We are also planning to venture out to Bangalore soon.
As a startup founder, what are you paranoid about? What keeps you awake at night?
As an Engineer I believe it’s my duty to find solution to people’s problems and help the community with engineering solutions. It will not only improve the people’s life but also will develop our society. It was always my dream to be a helping hand in developing our Nation, and I think this is the first step I have taken towards reaching my goal.
Who are your competitions and how are you better than them?
At present there is no similar product available in the Indian market. One of the major brand has a filter bottle but their filtration technology is weak and does not provide as many features as ours.
More importantly our filter technology is designed, tested and developed by our team and patented.Also this is the cheapest filtration technology available, yet most efficient with great health benefits. Brand value and gaining customer trust will be a struggle at first, but with intelligent marketing strategy we can overcome this problem.
How hard is it to have a work-life balance as a startup founder and how do you manage it?
Since I am a student I am managing my start up along with my studies. I spend dedicated hours every day along with my co-founder in developing our product and speaking to our clients. I think proper time management is the key to success.
Have you raised funding? If yes, then we would like to know the details. If no then please tell us if you’re looking to raise?
In 2017, we received an Idea Grant of Rupees 2 Lakh from Kerala Start-Up Mission (KSUM) and subsequently got incubated under it. We are also looking for further investments for scaling up our product to the next level. On the other hand we have received an order for 1,00,000 I-Bo s from a reputed bank in Kerala
What’s the biggest misconception people have about you? Why do they have that? What’s the reality?
Most people think that as students we cannot manage our start up well or catch up with the market especially as the first generation entrepreneurs. We have proved most of them wrong through our journey over the past 2 years, when we were able to get orders worth 4.5 crore rupees from a bank. On the other hand we have also started generating a constant revenue by selling our 30 litter organic filters.
What gets you excited about this company?
Water crisis is going to be a serious problem in the future and we have the cheapest yet most efficient solution for it. I am very much excited to introduce our product to the market. It will not only influence the lives of people but also make our future generations healthier.
Tell us how a day in your life looks like? Your schedule for a day right from the time you get up till you hit the bed at night.
I start my day with the gym, morning exercises keeps me active throughout the day. After which I go to college. Even at college I work with student societies in my free hours as I am the CEO of College Entrepreneurship Development Cell and also a member of IEEE student branch. Once I return from the college, I dedicate my hours to my company. I go through the social media to keep myself updated, communicate with other business experts and also read books and online journals.
Tell us about your team and how did you meet each other?
I met my co-Founder in the first year of college. He was a technology enthusiast who was working on various projects. We became friends and worked on several projects together. Later we decided to start a company to showcase our products to the world. We met the rest of the team members during various events held in our college, where we got chance to work together as a team. People with similar mind set started approaching us once they came to know our products.
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