Welcome to IIT BHU Global Alumni Association
Banaras - the city where we had our many “firsts”, where we joined in as teenagers and came out as responsible adults, where the foundation of our personality was laid. Our Alumni association connects you with your previous self - with Banaras and its beauty. Revive bonds with old friends and batch-mates, relinquish your memory, and feel young again! Mentoring young and zealous minds and helping them achieve the dreams that we once dreamt. Network with fellow alumni who are scaling new heights in every field. Get to know the latest news and developments about our campus. Come, feel pride in belonging to the IIT BHU Fraternity! Please sign up and help us spread the word: https://bit.ly/WELCOME-IBGAA
'An Idea can change your life.'
Ideas and innovation drive the development of a country and its citizens. Keeping that in mind, innovation has been one of the crucial goals of the IIT BHU fraternity. Thus, it is no surprise that we put in notable efforts to promote ideas and provide them with the resources and bandwidth to flourish into successful products and technologies. Our E-Cell boasts of prolonged success in creating entrepreneurs and rightly so. The Malaviya Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (MCIIE) has provided first-hand financial support and mentorship to these future startups since 2008 and hopes to contribute further to the nation's development in the coming years. Both have hand-in-hand developed a confident and trusty ecosystem for entrepreneurs to get their first boost towards success. R-ABI and Cisco ThingQbator have also worked as a catalyst for startups in the field of agriculture and digital technologies, respectively.
In order to encourage and celebrate the struggle of our entrepreneurs, IBGAA and SAIC bring to you the “IIT BHU Alumni Start-up Showcase Series''. Under this initiative, the detailed stories of IIT BHU startups have been covered. The first article in this series is about Aquvio, a water purifying technology, founded in 2015 by Mr. Naveen Kumar and Mr. Rohit Mittal.
Founded in 2015 by Mr. Naveen Kumar and Mr. Rohit Mittal, Civil 2014 graduates from IIT BHU, Aquvio is a revolutionized RO-based water purifier technology that has been successful in tackling the problem of water wastage. Aquvio is India’s first RO system to have an astonishing water recovery rate of 70%, which is much higher than the 20-30% rate of the existing technologies. It not only ensures a high recovery rate but also delivers minerals rich water, thereby meeting the required water quality standards.
Over the years, Aquvio has been at the forefront of saving water for the world. The startup claims to have saved half a million liters of water in 2016, 10 million liters in 2017, and a huge 50 million liters in 2018. As they continue to grow, the founders are proud of their patent from the World Intellectual Property Organisation. While Aquvio has already had an impact on 7/17 sustainable development goals laid by the UNDP, the company has gained traction over the years. On the financial front, the team is clocking revenue of over Rs 10 million and has sold more than 100 units of the product. With the agile growth mindset, Aquvio plans to expand from Delhi NCR, Uttar Pradesh, and Haryana to have pan Indian presence by 2022.
While the growth is high, the recognition was tremendous as well. Ranked among the GCIP’s (an MSME-UNIDO initiative) Top 20 innovative start-ups, Aquvio won the CII Industrial Innovation Award (2016). In 2017, it won Rs. 10 lakhs in the APJ Abdul Kalam Centre Startup Impact Challenge. The team has been identified by the government and has received funding as a part of the pre-series A round of the Technology Development Board, Government of India.
‘Necessity is the mother of invention.'
Every successful startup begins with a problem and the motivation to solve it. Similar is the story of Aquvio that we're covering today. It all started in 2014 when Mr. Naveen Kumar was working in a water purifier company in Delhi, where he realized the problem of water wastage by RO based water purifiers. After his discussions with Mr. Rohit Mittal, the duo agreed on developing better technology for the same.
By the end of 2014, they were ready with a prototype that was presented to the Malaviya Centre for Innovation, Incubation, and Entrepreneurship (MCIIE), IIT BHU. Being the supportive body that it has been, MCIIE provided the initial boost to the startup with a seed funding of Rs. 6.4 lakhs. With the aid of the incubator, they were able to come up with a marketable version of their product within a span of eight months. This model with a 100 liters per hour (LPH) capacity, was tested and installed in IIT BHU, Dhirendra Mahila PG College, Arya Mahila PG College, and The Aryan International School in Varanasi. While the existing technologies required 4 liters of water to generate 1 liter of purified water, with their patent ready technology they were able to generate the same amount of pure water from only 1.5 liters. In the consecutive year, the company saw a growth of 300 percent. They were able to target and establish their market in Delhi-NCR and the states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh and have continued to grow ever since.
Nostalgic about his Alma Mater, the founder recalled his supportive peer groups and highlighted the importance of college seniors and mentors on the road of life. 'Don't jump to solve problems before identifying the problems', says Mr. Naveen Kumar when asked about his learnings. While he shared his experience, he asked all budding entrepreneurs to look for ideas that solve real problems. Never jump onto solutions just for the sake of opening a startup. Identify. Solve. Iterate.
This article has been prepared by Aditi IDD BCE 2024
Student Alumni Interaction Cell (SAIC) is an institute body consisting of students of IIT (BHU), Varanasi, that works under the guidance of Dean of Resource and Alumni. The cell's main objective is to develop a dynamic student-alumni community by enhancing the relationship between IIT (BHU), Varanasi and its alumni.