Unicorn India Ventures Invests in IoT-Enabled Solutions Provider Probus Smart Things

Probus, which develops integrated hardware and software solutions for utility providers, has raised an undisclosed seed round from UIV that will be used for scaling up the platform and entering new geographies.

Speaking on the development, Anil Joshi, Managing Partner, Unicorn India Ventures, observed, ?The electricity distribution infrastructure is ripe with opportunities for innovation and the ability to embrace the elements of smart grid infrastructure. Probus enables electricity distribution companies to rapidly digitise their infrastructure and processes by bringing cost reduction and operational efficiency. This is a service that isn?t just pertinent in India but will fare well in the rest of the South East Asian market and Europe as well.?

Probus is Unicorn India?s fourth investment since Mar 2020 from its Fund-II.

Anand Singh, Co-Founder & CEO, Probus Smart Things, said, ?India is a power surplus country, but the distortions in the power sector have cost the Indian economy $86 billion in 2016 alone. Current technologies like supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) are expensive and not scalable in terms of the size and complexity of India?s electricity distribution grid. Using our IoT-enabled wireless, modular hardware and data analytics platform, we cut through these issues and are enabling electric utilities to make last-mile connectivity reliable by helping India achieve an efficient electricity grid within a fraction of their current costs.?

Probus digitises the distribution grid and functions as an IoT platform-based service. They are winners of the ?Best Startup in India? for their sustainable solution at the 2019 Seedstars Delhi. The company and the underlying technology were twice honoured by Indian Smart Grid Forum (ISGF) in 2018 and 2020.

Probus offers a powerful IoT solution for electricity distribution utilities to help them achieve distribution grid analytics and automation, which subsequently enables a much more efficient distribution of electricity along with the quicker restoration of electricity after a power outage. Probus further enables reduced operations and management costs for utilities and ultimately lower power costs for consumers.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for digitised distribution grid was reinforced for efficient and timely billing and loss reduction. Probus is strongly placed to be the natural partner for utilities in driving this change.

The solution gives the distributors real-time visibility of asset performance, outages, root cause analysis, along with predictive and preventive maintenance through sensor data with scheduling and tracking of on-field personnel.