Business plan

Name Sachin Kumar

Company illumind solar
Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
Email sachin@illumind.in
Contact 9930206093
www.illumind.in

Index
Subject
Executive Summary

Page no.
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Vision & Mission

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The Problem

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The Solution

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Opportunity

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Team

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Business Model

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Product

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Market Analysis

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Competitor Analysis

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Competitive Advantage

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10

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10

Customer/Consumer Analysis ----------------------------------------------------------

11

Future Plans

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12

Financial Statements

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12

Business Plan

Operating Plan

Executive Summary
illumind is a start up in the field of Solar lighting, that aims to provide affordable yet
high performance solar lights to solve lighting needs of a vast rural population in India
that has meager or absolutely no access to electricity.

1. Need for the business

In India there are more than 300million people in 42000 villages with no access to
electricity and about 500million people with very poor access to electricity (about 3
hours a day). Millions of people are thus bereft of a basic need lighting. These people
thus resort to hazardous sources of lighting like kerosene lanterns which have been a
cause for thousands of accidents each year.
In the recent years, there have been a number of initiatives taken to help this segment
by introduction of solar lanterns etc. However, these have largely remained inaccessible
to this segment as they earn a meager income of $2 a day.

2. Concept of the business

The business is built upon two strong pillars that set it apart from the current scenario.
Firstly, we have come up with an innovative and optimized product which is extremely energy
efficient as well as easy to use due to its extremely compact design. Secondly, we intend to
implement a Product as a Service model in villages that would allow people to use our lights
at a cost of around Rs.3a day. This subscription based model would be affordable to the target
segment and is better than purchasing the device itself which cost around $10.

3. Feasibility of setting up the business

The huge market segment that we target has been largely uncatered to and the edge that our
product has over the other existing products is easily apparent. Similarly, the product as a
service business model serves our market segment appropriately.
The superiority of our products is noticeable from the table below that showcases our products
technical specifications (under the header i-Diya Home) as well as those of other prominent
players in the market.

Light (Lm)
Lighting Hours
Charging Time
Size

210
5 & 13
8
Palm Size

Aishwarya
NEST
100
6
9
Hurricane Lantern

Self Sufficient
Inbuilt Solar
Panel
Weight (gm)
Price

Yes
Yes

No
No

No
No

50
4
14
Hurricane
Lantern
No
No

350
590

2200
1600

1800
1500

1200
900

i-Diya Home

TERI 3W Lantern

Sun King

110
5
12
Hurricane Lantern

We have received an order for 70,000 units from a distributor in Africa that wishes to sell our
product in African countries like Somalia, South Africa etc. Moreover, we received working
interest from the following organizations:
- United Science of Africa (Kenya)
- ESCCSL (Bangladesh)
- Nze Timothy Akano Foundation (Nigeria)
- Shoprite Checkers ( South Africa, Namibia, Swaziland and Lesotho)
These tie-ups further emphasize on our products attractiveness.
Similarly, the Product as a Service business model that we wish to implement has its own merits
since it makes an attractive offering available to our target market segment at a very low cost
and the continuous returns from this subscription-based model make it more rewarding than
conventional one time sales. In Product as a Service model we have continuous engagement
with the customer which is a key in future business development.

4. Awards and Nominations

We have also won the following awards and nominations:

Winner of Global Student Entrepreneur Awards India West 2013 which is conducted
by Entrepreneurs Organization. We will represent India in the world finals of GSEA that
will be conducted in Washington DC.

Red Herring: We have been nominated for Red Herring Asias Top 100 award-2013 for
Innovation. We had moved into the final round.

TATA First Dot: We have also been awarded by TATA First Dot.

Business Plan
Vision To illuminate underprivileged homes and completely eliminate hazardous
ways of lighting.
Mission To offer the best solution at an affordable, low cost to underprivileged
homes facing lighting problems.
The Problem In India there are more than 300million people having no access
to electricity. These are the people who earn less than 100Rs a day. After sunset
they cant work, their kids cant study because they cannot afford costly solar
lights and they dont have grid connectivity. It is resulting in inefficiency in
terms of productivity, education and living standards.
Solution/Product - Our products are very low cost, starting less than Rs 500. It is
very compact unlike other cumbersome solar lanterns. Its size makes it
multipurpose catering different lighting needs of a household like studying,
working, home lighting and camping. Our product is self-sufficient. It doesnt
require any external component which makes it different from other products in
the market.
The Opportunity We are targeting a market in which 300 million people dont
have permanent access to electricity and 500 million people have partial access to
electricity. These are the people who in some part of the day need alternate
source of lighting. Still 42000 villages are not electrified in India. Lots of big and
small players are there in the market we are planning to operate. Some are sole
player in some part of country while rest is still not dominated by any large
player. This market is growing at huge pace due to recent fall in solar panel
prices.

TEAM
We are a three membered team. The role of team members is as following:Sachin Kumar Founder, CEO & CTO
Sachin is undergraduate student at Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT
Bombay. He is also a former team member Evo - 1, IIT Bombays electric formula
1 racing car.
Chandresh Kumar Marketing
Chandresh is undergraduate student at Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT
Bombay. He is co-founder of Origame designworks and has a working
experience in marketing with Suzlon Energy Limited.

Ankit Choudhary Supply management

Ankit is a MBA in human resource management. He has four years of work
experience.
Ankit will be managing supply chain.

Advisors
Akash Sureka
Founder & CEO Hoopz Planet info Pvt. Ltd.
Phani Bhusan
Founder Anant Computing Platform
Dr. Amarendra Sahoo
Former Chief General Manager Reserve Bank of India
Business Model Currently we are having are two revenue models. For India
we are having Product as a Service (PAS) and for overseas we are having sales
with moderate margin.
Product as a Service (PAS)

In PAS, we would be renting solar lights instead of selling them. PAS has key
benefits over sales for consumer as well as for us. As an organization is have a
few key benefits in long run.
In PAS, our representative in every village will deliver the charged devices on
demand and will collect discharged devices in the morning with the rent. Soon
consumer would be able to order devices over phone. We are building
application for these phones. Along with this our representative will also
maintain a dynamic database of consumer economic and employment behavior.
Benefits for Customer:

No huge initial investment for the customer. Huge initial investment has
been the key factor in the failure of the solar market. Due to huge initial
cost, the solar market hasnt been able to penetrate to the low income
segment, mainly rural.
No maintenance cost.
No hassle of charging devices.
Pay as you go. Rent it when you need it.
Safe and healthy lighting at lower cost than any conventional method.
Increasing working efficiency with minimal cost.
6

Benefits for us:

Best method of market penetration.
Continuous consumer interaction.
Through continuous consumer interaction building a dynamic database of
consumer needs and wants.
Data analytics will help us introduce new products and services of
consumer requirement efficiently and effectively.
Will help us entering other segments.
Can be tool for B2B tie ups.
Overseas: Currently we are having sales model with moderate margin for
African continent. Initial marketing efforts have shown tremendous response in
countries like South Africa, Lesotho, Zimbabwe and several other countries in
Africa.

Product
Currently we are having two kinds of product - One for just lighting which is
enough for lighting a small room and other for lighting + cell phone charging.
Following are the basic features of our products:Portable Our products are very compact size. Their sizes make it multipurpose.
It can not only be used as an alternate to the kerosene lamps used in their
household for lighting but also as an good alternative for night lamps or torches.
Energy Efficiency and Light Sensing Our product have light sensors which
automatically turns it off during day or when put in light. This helps in
efficiently saving the energy and increasing the life of the product.
Rain Proof Our products are rain proof. Consumer doesnt have to be worried
about the weather unlike other products.
Robust Our product is sufficiently robust. It doesnt damage even on falling on
concrete floor.

Eco-Friendly - Our product are not only energy efficient but also environment
friendly because there is no lead acid battery so no toxic liquid emission. The
battery used in the product can be safely disposed after use. It reduces around
10Kg CO2 emission per household per month which would have been emitted
on consumption of kerosene lamps.

Currently we are having two products i-Diya Home This is our basic model. It produces sufficient light to light
up a small room. This is basically developed for tasks which require
intense and mild lighting like studying, cooking etc.

i-Diya Charge It produces equivalent light to i-Diya Home and can

also charge a cell phone. This is perfect for the places where people have
no or very little access to electricity.

Market Analysis
Consumer Status - The off grid lighting is a very fast growing market. Still
many parts in India dont have grid connectivity especially rural. 35.5%
population still lives without electricity. This is the market segment which we are
trying to address.

CHART TITLE
No access

Partial Access
730

480
300

250

300

0
833

377

1210

Rural

Urban

Total

Competitor Analysis - There are several players in the solar lighting market.
Some of them are very well established. A few of them are SELCO in Karnataka,
TERI, NEST, DLight, Green light planet and many more. Even though there are
so many players but still they havent penetrated to the grass root level. Still
there is a huge market to be addressed. Out of these only SELCO, TERI and
NEST have done good job and have captured very good market in their
respective target locations like SELCO which is sole player in Karnataka in terms
of market size.
There are some other established organisations like DLight, Green light Planet
and others. Even though they sell a good amount but they are facing many
issues. One of the major issues is reliability. Through our market survey in a
village we found that most of DLights products have failed in 3-4 months and
barely any survived for a year. Others are also facing reliability, technical and
other issues.
The superiority of our products is noticeable from the table below that showcases
our products technical specifications (under the header i-Diya Home) as well as
those of other prominent players in the market:
i-Diya Home*

Aishwarya
NEST

TERI 3W Lantern

Sun King

Light (Lm)
Lighting Hours
Charging Time
Size

210
5 & 13
8
Palm Size

100
6
9
Hurricane Lantern

110
5
12
Hurricane Lantern

50
4
14
Hurricane
Lantern

Self Sufficient
Inbuilt Solar
Panel

Yes
Yes

No
No

No
No

No
No

Weight (gm)

350

2200

1800

1200

Price

590

1600

1500

900

*patent pending

10

Competitive Advantage
We are having a few key advantages over our competitors. We have the most
efficient and cost effective product in the market. We are having the most
affordable method of bringing these products the people who are in most need of
it and cant afford them.
Continuous innovation and implementing smart strategy based on output of
PAS is going to be the one of the key competitive advantages.
First movers advantage is going to be the biggest factor.

Operating Plan
Currently we have outsourced manufacturing. We plan to keep our focus on
R&D and execution. Operating plan could be divided into following stages:
1- R&D and Data Lab R&D lab will focus on the product research based on
the consumer requirement. Data lab will extract the inputs from our
representatives in the villages and analyze it. Based on this analysis, data
lab will provide input to the research division.
2- Execution division This division will focus on the pre execution tasks.
This division will collaborate with the NGOs and will provide all the
required data to the ground team. This division will provide location,
concerned person and other information for a smooth campaign.
3- Ground Execution Our team of two representatives will visit the villages
based on the information from the execution division. Our representatives
will have a campaign in every village and will do the set up and make
people aware of our initiatives and advantages of PAS.

Customer/Consumer Analysis
Location - Our target consumer is located in rural and tier II and III cities. These
are the places where either no or partial electricity is available. These are the
people who dont have access to electricity for 3-4 days during black outs and
usually have daily power cut from 5 to 18 hours. Some of them dont have
permanent access to electricity.

Economic Profile Our target customer ranges from people who earn less than
$2 per day to a few thousand per month. These are the people who spend
around on an average $2 on kerosene or candles for lighting per month due to
unavailability of grid electricity. Our target customers are very low income
segment people and cannot afford to buy costly solar lighting solutions and have
to live with the hazardous kerosene.
Kerosene lighting is very hazardous and causes around 1.6 million deaths
worldwide per year. Around 1 million people die in kerosene lighting accidents
per year.
11

Future Plans
With implementation of PAS, we would enter other sectors besides solar
lighting. These sectors include agriculture and education. In agriculture we plan
to start with advisory services to product supply.

Financial Statement
Revenue

PAS
120000
100000

'000

80000
60000
40000
20000
0
-20000

FY 13-14

FY 14-15

FY 15-16

Revenue

12656

101925

EBITDA

-38

-4328

17371

Overseas
30

mn

25
20
15
10
5

FY 13-14

FY 14-15

FY 15-16

Revenue (mn)

26

26

EBITDA (mn)

10

10

12

Fund Requirement
Field

Fund Requirement ($)

Product Development

30000

R&D set up

1,00,000

Talent
acquisition(Employees)

4,00,000

Office and other infra

1,00,000

PAS Set up

5,00,000

Products

8,00,000

Legal Expenditure

50,000

Total Requirement

19,80,000

Balance sheet
`
CY2013

CY2014

CY2015

Sources of Fund
Share Capital

51500000

251500000

251500000

Reserves and Surpluses

29190000

516687266.7

2737716392

Total Shareholders Fund

80690000

768187266.7

2989216392

Long Term Liability

Total liability

80690000

768187266.7

2989216392

3000000

657100000

3089500000

133449583.3

1085394583

3000000

523650416.7

2004105417

Inventory

11250000

180000000

225000000

Accounts Receivables

27300000

223350000

911850000

Cash & cash equivalents

39140000

83196850

303000975

Total Current Assets

77690000

486546850

1439850975

Total sources of Fund

Application of Fund
Gross Block
Accumulated Depreciation
Net block
Investments
Current Assets

Current liabilities
Accounts Payable

13

Short term Liability(WC Loan)

242010000

454740000

Provisions

Total Current Liabilities and provisions

242010000

454740000

Net Current assets

77690000

244536850

985110975

Total Application of Funds

80690000

768187266.7

2989216392

Profit & Loss Projections

Domestic
CY2014

CY2015

Revenues
From PAS rental

759375000

6115500000

Selling Expenses

240700000

896400000

Employee Cost

268050000

1638200000

800000

2000000

Cash Operating Expense

509550000

2536600000

EBITDA

249825000

3578900000

Depreciation expenses

133449583

951945000

EBIT

116375417

2626955000

18150750

52256250

PBT

98224666.7

2574698750

Tax

29467400

772409625

PAT

68757266.7

1802289125

Operating costs
Cost of Goods Sold
General Administrative Expense

Maintenance cost

interest Cost

Overseas
Pnl

CY2013

CY2014

CY2015

Revenues
Sales

109200000

1560000000

1560000000

COGS

67200000

960000000

960000000

300000

1800000

1800000

Cash Operating Expense

67500000

961800000

961800000

EBITDA

41700000

598200000

598200000

41700000

598200000

598200000

PBT

41700000

598200000

598200000

Tax

12510000

179460000

179460000

PAT

29190000

418740000

418740000

Other Expenses

Depreciation expenses
EBIT
interest Cost

14