HERALD: What is your field of specialty?
PRANAV KUNDAIKAR: We specialise in temperature and humidity monitors. We started out as an Internet of Things (IoT) platform company providing our hardware and cloud services to big corporations like ITC, Marico, HDFC, etc. Bolt IoT, our cloud platform, is completely developed in-house, along with the Bolt IoT hardware modules. In 2016, we received the Chief Minister’s Award for Best Start-up in Goa, which brought us into the spotlight. Consequently, we raised funding from an investor in the Pharma industry, which is when we decided to launch a product for pharmaceutical monitoring solutions. Our temperature and humidity monitor – the BTHM (Bolt Temperature and Humidity Monitor), is patent pending and is live in pharma companies across India.
HERALD: How did you develop the BTHM and why is it aimed at Pharma companies?
PK: BTHM is an IoT solution for real time temperature and humidity monitoring, powered by Bolt IoT Platform. After we received our funding from an investor in the pharma industry we realised that we could leverage our in-house hardware and software capabilities to build a monitor for logging critical environmental parameters for pharma applications. Pharma companies manufacture and store several temperature sensitive products, which need to be monitored constantly. Moreover, our market research told us that many pharma companies still rely on traditional methods for data logging, which are not insightful or reliable. So, we set off. For over eighteen months, we validated and tested the BTHM in Goa-based pharma companies. After several iterations and dozens of sensor changes, we finally found reliable temperature sensor vendors in Switzerland and in mid-2017 we were finally ready with a highly accurate and consistently reliable temperature and humidity monitor.
HERALD: Who are your major customers?
PK: Our major customers are Molbio Diagnostics, and UNO Minda group. The device was tested and validated in dry rooms and cold rooms, in Goa-based pharmaceutical companies.
HERALD: How will your product impact the pharma sector?
PK: Due to audit rules and compliance guidelines, pharmaceutical companies need to maintain all temperature and humidity records for their various storage areas and warehouses. Also, they need to make sure someone is present on-site round the clock, because some products are so sensitive to the environment change, that even short excursions for a few minutes can damage the product. BTHM makes life easy for pharma companies — data is automatically logged over the Internet and can be downloaded any time with just a click. BTHM also gives alerts over SMS and email in case temperature and humidity goes out of the prescribed range. This eliminates the need to have someone present on-site at all times, saves our client’s time and money, and gives them peace of mind.
HERALD: Why replace existing monitors with the BTHM?
PK: Some pharma companies use wet and dry bulbs in their storage areas and manually log the data every two hours or so. Many others use traditional chart recorders to log temperature data. However, these existing systems do not alert the users about temperature excursions and cannot give pharma personnel real time information about environmental conditions. This lack of visibility often leads to temperature excursions without anyone knowing, and forces them to discard the products due to spoilage. The BTHM not only alerts you over SMS and email whenever there is an unwanted excursion but also lets you monitor your temperature and humidity controlled areas 24×7, via a dedicated dashboard online. This helps pharma companies take action before the temperature and humidity sensitive products are damaged.
HERALD: How do you see the Goa market?
PK: There is a huge demand in Goa. Goa is a hub for pharmaceutical companies with dozens of companies headquartered in various industrial estates across the State. Every pharmaceutical company uses cold rooms, dry rooms, deep freezers for storing temperature sensitive products, which need constant monitoring. The BTHM is perfect for such applications since it comes in two variants – The BTHM standalone and BTHM-external probe. The standalone unit is useful for monitoring dry rooms, cold rooms and other temperature and humidity controlled areas. The BTHM-external probe comes with an external sensor module, which can be placed inside deep freezers and refrigerators to monitor products placed in sub-zero conditions.
HERALD: Where do you see yourself in the next five years?
PK: Our vision is to bring IoT to the pharma industry in a big way and have chosen temperature/humidity monitoring since these are two very critical parameters during manufacture, storage, and transport of pharma products. In five years time, we aim to become the leading suppliers of temperature and humidity monitors for the Pharma industry in India. We want to change the way Indian pharma companies approach data logging since it is still done with traditional methods in most companies.
