Gaule's Question Time: Andrew Gaule talks to Alexei Levene, managing director of Innovation Experience.
Give a brief description of the purpose of your incubator.
Innovation Experience was founded initially as a charitable organisation in the Indian state of Kerala with a view to developing clean technologies and working with women’s groups and youth to educate, co-design and deliver projects. In 2012 we reformulated into a business both developing our own projects and working collaboratively with others. To date we have developed more than 30 clean-tech-related technologies. It is only recently that we have evolved into what might be termed an incubator and we have a couple of successful case studies, including the co-development of a pioneering desalination technology using clean energy as well as the successful investment-raising for an Indian consumer electronics startup. Today our process revolves around projects that have game changer potential with partners that have an inherently social vision, and we are currently headquartered in London, UK, with a development centre in India.
Give a brief overview of the people in the team and the partners you work with.
Our team includes engineers, strategists, innovators and project managers and we work effectively with partners across the spectrum, from design agencies in the UK, universities in India, inventors and co-developers in Holland and implementation partners across the world. We have worked to date with various corporates including Allianz, Ingersoll Rand, UST Global, IBS software and more, and we are currently in a co-development project with a multi–national company. We are keen to work with corporates and business leaders who understand that social value is not a tick-box activity, rather a means of creating long-term value and a win-win-win – in short, those who get it.
Give examples of current and recent programmes.
The following are selected ventures and incubations.
- The Desolenator is a patented solar-powered desalination technology with a high yield at low cost and fully off-grid that offers families in coastal areas or near brackish water the security of long-term drinking water. We have taken the project from patent to prototype and near-investment readiness and scale. Desolenator has won a place on the Climate-KIC programme and partners both Liverpool University in the UK as well as the College of Engineering Trivandrum in Kerala.
- Aim is a micro-manufacturing system and service to enable clusters of base-of-pyramid entrepreneurs to manufacture small electronics goods such as solar lights and solar charge controllers in their own homes. This is made possible by our in-house-developed solar-powered micro-manufacturing workstation, tailored product training and introduction of an effective supply chain and quality assurance process. Aim is currently being rolled out in Kerala in partnership with the state government.
- Fin is a wearable universal control device developed in India that has been featured in Techcrunch, Mashable and other leading media and which won over 200% of its crowdfunding target. Fin is poised to transform the human-machine interface and Innovation Experience has worked with the team for over three years as an adviser and more recently in raising series A investment.
- Urja is a solar-powered electric cycle that brings all of the benefits of electric transport without the need to find a power source. With an elegant design, the cycle was developed by Innovation Experience in 2012. Innovation Experience is partnering a leading UK clean-tech venture capital firm to develop a version for the UK market. The project has won a grant from the UK’s Technology Strategy Board.
- Profound is is a big data analytics firm based in India that has developed various products, including the hit Vibe. Vibe has won rave reviews across the world and has attracted more than 600,000 customers. Innovation Experience has worked with Profound is for over three years with mentoring, investment readiness, and sales and market strategy support.
Innovation is very much a buzzword in corporate India. However, the education system is still rife with rote learning, binary thinking, focus on convergence and theoretical versus practical focus. With a few notable exceptions, such as the Tata group, corporate India is doubtless feeling the repercussions of this education system, which is manifest in higher rates of low-cost replication strategies across sectors. At the same time, India is an inherently innovative country with a vast young population that is rapidly getting online with a great sense of optimism and self-belief. Concepts such as jugaad [a Hindi-Urdu word meaning an innovative fix or simple work-around] are evident everywhere and innovation is the glue that makes such a complex system work. The venture capital market is rapidly expanding in India across sectors, notably in the impact space, although e-commerce has been a big winner, with players such as Flipkart and Snapdeal growing at breakneck speed. At the same time, risk capital is hard to source for young companies that have ventures with global ambitions, with valuations significantly lower than US or European counterparts.
Where do you see the synergies and benefits that can occur between india and other countries?
Global interdependence is well established and clearly synergies have value across the economic, political, environmental and educational realms. With the new government in place and an evident need for mass infrastructure development, anticipation is high that foreign direct investment is both an enabler of growth as well as a requirement of success.
What do you do to relax?
Time is a premium these days, with lots of travel between the UK and India, but I have some hobbies, including martial arts and singing. I often have friends and family visiting in India and we enjoy going to the beach and trekking to one of a few secret waterfalls in the mountains.
