Managing data and detecting anomalies in e-transportation is challenging. Sentienz’s Akiro IoT platform addresses this with advanced MQTT+ and analytics. In a discussion with EFY’s Nitisha, Sentienz founder Shrikanth explains the platform’s cross-sector functionality.
Q. Tell us about Sentienz and what products you offer.
A. Sentienz Pvt Ltd was established in 2016 and originated as a bootstrap venture with its headquarters in Bengaluru. Specialising in product engineering and consulting services, Sentienz has developed Akiro IoT, its flagship product. Akiro stands as an innovative AI and ML platform tailored for IoT clientele. Soundararajan and Shrikanth co-founded the company and have since maintained a steadfast commitment to technological advancement and client satisfaction.
Q. Who is your primary target audience?
A. Our focus lies primarily on smart city initiatives, clean energy solutions, and serving clients in the mobility and utility sectors.
Q. How does Akiro optimise IoT outcomes for clients?
A. Akiro operates primarily as a messaging platform. It leverages the acuity protocol for smooth communication, a common practice in IoT. Following messaging, we integrate our analytical capabilities and develop accelerators to enhance various IoT use cases. We also deploy our expertise in AI and ML to optimise outcomes for our IoT clients. Our portfolio includes innovative applications such as smart meters and solutions for alternate energy like EV chargers and battery monitoring systems (BMS), which reflects our focus on energy and mobility sectors. We recently onboarded a new smart city client, exemplified by our collaboration with the Uttar Pradesh Government on tracking their fleet of EV buses.
Q. How does your tracking system manage the expanded bus fleet data requirements?
A. Our client needed to expand their electric bus tracking from a small fleet to include over 1200 buses, managed by multiple vendors and under government oversight. The original system could not scale to meet the increased data demands, which included tracking bus location, battery health, and other parameters. We provided a solution with our low-code Akiro, which now efficiently manages and forwards data for buses across major cities in Uttar Pradesh and Odisha. It ensures that all necessary information reaches the government agencies and other vendors involved.
Q. What are Akiro’s key performance advantages?
A. Our fundamental priority for clients is expansive growth, both vertically and horizontally. The standout features of our product include high-availability, message scaling, and exceptionally low-latency, setting new standards in the market. By delivering superior performance metrics, we ensure unmatched availability, scalability, and minimal latency in connectivity. Moreover, our analytics capabilities provide valuable insights into customer data and charging behaviours, empowering clients to identify growth opportunities and streamline operations. This tailored approach has been particularly beneficial for our EV charging clients.
Q. How does Akiro monitor EV charging?
A. The client, primarily involved in EV charging, sought solutions to overcome industry challenges, especially in India’s rapidly evolving EV infrastructure landscape. Their unique proposition revolved around mobile EV chargers, necessitating 24*7 monitoring of charging ports. Akiro stepped in with its robust platform, offering round-the-clock visibility of connected devices and addressing the client’s need for comprehensive surveillance and management.
Q. How does Akiro enhance EV charging infrastructure competence?
A. Akiro, leveraging protocols like OCPP, enables charge point operators to cater to diverse EV types, expanding their client base. Additionally, it extends its utility beyond EV charging, monitoring EV and storage batteries. This extensive supervision addresses critical concerns, ensuring optimal functionality and client satisfaction. A rule engine-based alerting system promptly notifies operators of charge board errors, facilitating quick action and efficient operation. Our support extends to all participants in the EV charging ecosystem, including EMSB, charge point operators, and charging service providers, ensuring comprehensive coverage and operational efficiency.
Q. How does Akiro gather and process sensor data efficiently?
A. Sensor devices are crucial for collecting data, especially for monitoring parameters like voltage, temperature, and current in systems such as BMS. We collaborate with hardware vendors to source these sensors, transmitting data through a data gateway to our Akiro cloud platform. Once the data is received, Akiro will analyse it, including potential AI/ML model applications. This involves data cleansing and subsequent processing to derive meaningful insights and support various use cases.
Q. How quickly can data transmission and device registration happen?
A. Clients must direct their data to specified endpoints, like URLs we provide. Data transmission starts promptly, supporting various user groups. Depending on the complexity, onboarding typically takes just two days. Customers share data, and we provide endpoints and set up a customised application under their company name. Users receive login credentials to configure and register devices. We build initial standard dashboards, with later customisation options available. We support around 250 tracking metrics and their analysis. All these steps will happen in a time span of 48 hours.
Q. How does Akiro handle vast data?
A. Our system forms the backbone of the Akiro platform, designed to manage vast amounts of data seamlessly. It is cloud-agnostic and caters to both on-premises and SaaS models. While primarily a cloud-based platform, we accommodate on-premises setups for clients with specific requirements. However, most clients opt for our cloud services to support their operations effectively.
Q. What is the difference between on-premises and SaaS setups?
A. With SaaS, we expose endpoints for device registration, allowing data push from various protocols the customer chooses. In contrast, for on-premises installations, a customised version akin to our SaaS platform is installed on virtual machines provided by the customer. The process begins with acquiring servers and deploying our Docker-based images using automation scripts. These images include essential components and services layered with our proprietary platform atop a Linux-based operating system.
Q. What are the critical security measures for data privacy?
A. One of the principal focuses is security, emphasising data security over hacking concerns. A person’s identifiable information is not stored. We ensure it remains at the customer’s end, not ours. Firewall-protected zones reinforce this. Employee access compliance dictates who can access what. Security measures extend to industry-standard practices like OWASP’s top 10, shielding against third-party attacks. Encryption and protocol-level security, such as transport layer security or HTTPS, are also integral to our offerings.
Q. How do you address traceability challenges in IoT technology?
A. Traceability presents a significant technical challenge in IoT. We ensure data origin and trace logic for data points, even in cases of potential data loss. Internally, akin to car diagnostics, we provide analytics for understanding system checkpoints. These internal tools offer insights into data transmission, energy consumption, and future load predictions. This allows proactive management, like adjusting charging station capacity based on demand trends.
Q. What are the usage charges?
A. Our strategy comprises two categories: primary data usage and advanced use cases. Basic data usage charges range from 50 cents to $1.5 per device. Advanced use cases incur charges ranging from $5 to $50 per device, reflecting the value derived from the device.
Q. What determines free versus paid access?
A. When the device count drops by two, they enter a free period. This operates like a business model for charging stations with ten or more devices. A reasonable count triggers paid access. Onboarding is open to individuals and even single vehicles.
Q. What is the current and potential device capacity?
A. We currently support 1.5 to 2 million boxes from a large conglomerate, showcasing our scalability. Our platform can easily handle this capacity and is designed to support up to 10 million devices per cluster of 14 machines. We have benchmarked 10 million numbers, and our system can manage millions of devices, whether charging stations, buses, or sensors.
Q. Could you share additional use cases with us?
A. Our platform is versatile and suitable for applications like BMS. We conducted a successful POC for a retailer, enabling cold chain temperature tracking. This retailer aimed to expand its fleet management to include cold chain logistics. We installed temperature tracking systems in cold chain containers and transferred the data to Akiro via a gateway. This allowed precise temperature monitoring, which is critical for transporting medicines and medical devices requiring specific temperature maintenance.
Q. What prompts users to transition to paid services?
A. We currently have paying customers both on SaaS and on-premises, with approximately 50 individuals utilising our services for free. For small-scale device users, we offer complimentary access as we view their growth as integral to our own. As they expand their device inventory, the need for analytics naturally arises, prompting a transition to paid services. Initially, their usage may be aimed at understanding device communication and charging sessions without immediate monetisation. However, as their device count surpasses a minimum threshold of 10, they typically seek real-time monitoring and dashboard functionalities to bolster their system’s health insights.
Q. What are your target revenue proportions between products and services?
A. Our business model aims for 20% of revenue from services and 80% from products, though currently, our split is closer to 70-30. We are on the verge of adding a significant new fintech customer, which we expect to announce by June or July. This addition will shift our revenue distribution to approximately 35% from products and 65% from services.
Q. How do your partners help you acquire customers?
A. Our partners are a fundamental pillar of our business; all our customers have been acquired through their networks. Initially, we prioritised hiring domain experts, but we have developed substantial domain expertise internally. This expertise allows us to use our channels directly to reach customers. While we possess case studies demonstrating our capabilities, we focus on reaching end customers and informing them about our company’s solutions to specific problems.
Q. What challenges have you faced in aligning customer expectations with your IoT services?
A. Data transmission involves numerous methods, requiring us to adapt our OCPP protocols—this posed a significant challenge. Initially, we believed that IoT was primarily concerned with device onboarding. However, we quickly learned that it is not just about onboarding devices but entire business units. For instance, in a charging station, the ultimate goal for customers is to understand operational activities within a specific area. We have also discovered that while many of our clients expect a management-type application from us, it is challenging to convey that our expertise lies in analytics, particularly for advanced use cases. When we approach them, they often request additional services like mobile app development, which is not our concern; instead, we specialise in providing analytical insights.
Q. What is your work environment like?
A. We have a small hardware setup managed by 18 workers in a room measuring approximately 3.05 metres (10 feet) by 4.9 metres (16 feet), all within a larger area of around139 square metres (1500 square feet) where we conduct our operations.
Q. How did your last fiscal year perform, and what are your expectations for the coming years?
A. We aim to reach a minimum revenue of $500,000, meaning we need to onboard between 200,000 and 300,000 devices and, ultimately, around 800,000. Currently, we have about 10,000 devices on Akiro. Although there has been a dip in product engineering, our product offerings have improved, and we added two new customers in the last month. This indicates growth in our product segment despite a slight downturn in the product engineering market.
Q. What are your customer acquisition goals for the coming months?
A. We aim to acquire three or four new customers within two to three months. If this builds our confidence, we may consider moving towards fundraising. This is currently one of our main focuses.
