When Prateek Kumar was at the Delhi College of Engineering (DCE), he met with a road accident near the campus – which turned out to be a vital turning point in his life. This 2016 experience not only transformed the way he approached life, but also gave him a purpose: to make a device that would guarantee timely help in the event of a car accident.
“We can all remember someone who was injured or lost a family member in a road accident, as a result of which help did not arrive in time. The sad reality we live in is very sad. This needs to change,” says Kumar. “I wanted to bring about this change through my extensive experience in developing Internet of Things (IoT) and software-based solutions, from conceptualization to generation.”
Kumar decided to build a device that was capable of “sensing” the intensity of an accident. For example, if it were to occur, it would send relevant information to emergency services or a nearby hospital, while also informing the victim's family. All of this would happen seconds after the accident.
The 23-year-old entrepreneur decided that a smart helmet, which combined a chip or device into the existing helmet, would be the ideal way to adapt sensing technology. This made sense with the large number of scooters and bicycles on India's roads.
“I researched online sources and found some sports helmets in European markets with a GoPro camera and other gadgets. This didn’t correspond to what I had in mind and it was also very expensive”, he says. “I wanted to create a smart, cost-effective circuit or device that could be incorporated or retrofitted into a helmet.”
Most importantly, the device had to work well with typical Indian road conditions and be something that drivers would easily get used to. “So in 2017, together with some friends, I started working to find a viable offering for the Indian market. As it required significant investment, I also developed a software and sold it to my college to raise money for this project,” says Kumar.
In early 2017, the team also received some funding from the Spark-up Idea Fund, a seed fund for entrepreneurial ideas organized by iCreate, the Gujarat government's technology business incubation center. Students and innovators from various engineering colleges across India can apply for the Spark-up Fund. “A few rounds of interviews follow and then the winning entries receive up to Rs 50,000 in funding to enable students and innovators to take their respective projects to the next level of development,” he says.
The startup
After graduating in 2018, Kumar registered his venture, Vida Salvateur International Pvt Ltd (VSIPL), under the government's Startup India scheme. The company name means saving lives in Spanish and French – vida means “life” in Spanish and salvador means “to save” in French.
Kumar's helmet and smart chip will be marketed under the Motobuddy brand. VSIPL is in the process of registering the trademark and copyright of the brand and its handcrafted logo. So far, around Rs 25 lakh has been invested in the business, including a grant of Rs 10 lakh received in July last year under the Nidhi Prayas scheme of the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India via IKP Eden, Bengaluru, which is India's first hardware product incubator.
“Every year, two batches are released for this scheme. You can apply directly to the incubators listed in this program. The financing offered is enormous support for innovators who want to start their entrepreneurial journey”, he explains.
When Kumar and his friends began developing the smart helmet, the circuitry designed to power the device was so large that it covered an entire helmet. Simplifying the method to an ideal size and making it aesthetically appealing was key to ensuring the harness was marketable. After two years of hard work and countless iterations, Kumar managed to reduce the bulky circuit to a coin-sized chip.
Over the past two years, the company has worked extensively to perfect the innovation to accurately detect and alert about accidents. “It was a big challenge to reduce the circuit to its current size. It took a lot of prototyping with the right set of manufacturers and components to make this happen,” he says.
The startup currently has 18 members who occupy various operational roles. Kumar brings to the table a wealth of experience in drones, software development and IoT solutions. Manoj Saxena holds the position of CTO of the business, a gold medalist from DCE, a master's degree from IISc and a Ph.D. from IIT Delhi and Stanford University. With an MBA from INSEAD, Venugopal Gupta is a business consultant and company mentor.
Currently, Vida Salvateur hopes to secure a new round of funding of around Rs 1 crore so that the product can enter final development.
How it works
Motobuddy technology can be collaborated with a mobile device via Bluetooth. A mobile application has already been created for this purpose and will be available for download from the Google Play Store and the iOS App Store at the time of official launch. The user can then fill in emergency contact information and personal health-related details such as medical conditions, allergies, and any existing illnesses after listing them in the app.
The reason for integrating the device into helmets is to motivate users to remember the helmet on each trip, says Kumar. The invention also emits a red light through LEDs, thus increasing the driver's clarity on the road while driving. In case of an accident, the IoT-enabled device recognizes it but does not send an alert for 30 seconds. Through this brief period, if the accident is not serious, the rider can eliminate the automated activation process. If the warnings are not canceled, the device sends information in the form of a message to the nearest hospital with information about the accident, its impact and location.
Based on this data, the hospital will be able to transmit emergency services, whether exceptional or necessary ambulance, to the scene of the accident. Motobuddy is working on introducing a network of hospitals in Noida, other parts of Delhi-NCR and ultimately across the country. The company is also planning to integrate emergency ambulance care providers into its system.
“If the nearest hospital is not in our system, our administrators who monitor the system will call and alert a hospital about the incident. If the hospital does not act within the specified period, the system will send another message to alert the next closest dispensary,” he states.
The road ahead for the team is interesting, as they have been carrying out road tests over the past few months, with 25 already tested chips in progress. Information from these simulated trips and accidents was entered into the system and analyzed, and the devices were adjusted according to the findings.
“For example, the driver of a motorcycle or scooter may experience a large jolt from falling into a pothole or from uneven speed brakes. A common sensor could misinterpret such incidents as an accident. To resolve this situation, exceptional sensors have been designed to carefully recognize accidents caused by jolting and jolting incidents,” says Kumar. “Similarly, there are some other things that are different from the smart chip. However, I cannot share further details on this platform.”
The startup applied for patents for the chip and smart helmet about 18 months ago and hopes to obtain them by the end of this year. These licenses are India specific as obtaining global licenses would be a costly operation.
“However, once supplemental funding arrives and the smart chip has good market attrition, we plan to apply for global patents and acquire intellectual property as well.”
The company initially plans to launch the smart chip valued at Rs 1,200 and the adapted helmet valued at Rs 2,500 will be introduced later. It also plans to offer an AI-based engine that will feature advanced driving analytics (ADAs) including speed and driving performance and location tracking. An annual subscription-based configuration, ADA, will be offered to Motobuddy users at a nominal price to be disclosed at the time of the product's market launch.
VSIPL eventually plans to include information about insurance and health policies with the smart helmet. This is mainly being done to facilitate cashless claims at various network hospitals, he says. Internationalizing Motobuddy product and service offerings is also part of the company's business expansion plans.
“We have simplified everything needed to commercially produce the smart chip and helmet. We should be able to reach the market within three months of receiving funding,” says Kumar.
