Fishermen casting their nets at night, a nomadic tribe in Kutch area of Gujarat, a small hut in a regular hamlet that lights the evening shadows with the help of a tiny wick lamp – these are just some of the beneficiaries of the new LED revolution. Led by InnovLite, a four-year old technology firm based in Bangalore, these lights and lighting solutions are hugely energy efficient, resulting in upto 60 per cent savings, recouping their higher initial costs within six months.

Started by BR Raghav, InnovLite is a profitable organization whose turnover is trebling every year, and it aims to achieve a target of Rs. 6 crore in the current financial year. Subir Roy of Business Standard writes more about this successful enterprise:

InnovLite’s products are all designed by it and put together from commercially available components, with only the LED element imported. Raghav, a 44 year old electrical and electronics engineer who earlier ran a data storage venture, has not cared to patent his products but bases his business model on being a moving target which is difficult for emulators to beat.

His forte is a combination of early start, rapid commercialisation and quick scaling. By the time a challenger arrives InnovLite has moved on, powered by the same kind of improvement in the efficiency of LED devices as is benchmarked by Moore’s law in the case of semiconductors.

Global lighting players find it difficult to come up with such do-it-yourself solutions because, he says, their development costs are high and they have legacy problems. Such products will also tend to cannibalise their existing products.

While LED lighting has already been adopted by large business establishments for its energy and cost savings, it is yet to reach the masses in a big way. But the future looks bright with companies like InnovLite, who have discovered the fortune at the bottom at the pyramid, and are benefiting millions of others, besides themselves, in the process.

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