Having worked with many multinational companies in different parts of the globe, Ajith Alexander realised that data from project sites was never available on time to the management. Even at Cisco, when he was handling Business Development for Smart Cities in India, he interacted with many developers and they all saw operational efficiency as a pain point. These experiences were the origin for the idea of QwikSpec, he recollects.
QwikSpec is a technology platform that aggregates data from all stakeholders on a construction project site, with the help of a mobile application used by all the stakeholders. “Using the data, we provide insights to our clients that lowers cost, saves time, and improves quality. We differentiate ourselves by being an end-to-end construction project platform — structural stage to handover. Other applications are typically focused on individual stages and don’t have the functionality we provide,” Alexander said.
“The idea was shared with my engineering college classmate Roby Kurien and he was excited to build something that could have a large impact. Kurian came with close to 20 years of experience in technology companies like Motorola, Kyocera, Sirf Technologies, and Impulsesoft. So, Roby and me co-founded QwikSpec,” he added.
All project sites have numerous inspections by various stakeholders — developer, contractors, project management company, consultants, and even the unit owner. QwikSpec enables the digitisation of all these activities and provides operational insights based on the big data that’s available on the QwikSpec platform.
Talking about challenges, he said, “The biggest challenge was to nail down the actual use case and get the product workflow right so that it’s so relevant for customers that they will be willing to pay for the solution. We tackled this by getting a pilot customer with whom we worked closely to get the correct use case, the various workflows, and product features built. Once we did that I was confident that we have a product that can be scaled.”
Since its journey on January 2015, QwikSpec has raised Rs 2 crore in angel funding. “We have on-boarded some of the leading real estate developers as clients. Our client base includes Tata Housing, Mahindra Lifespace, Mantri Developers, Prestige Group, Brigade Group, and Ozone Group. Our target is to have over 50 customers over the next one year and have more than 400 projects using the platform,” he added.
“We have a scalable big data cloud platform. Our user-friendly mobile application ensures that site users adopt it. Moreover, it allows operation in areas where there is no connectivity, as well as annotating of images that are taken,” he said.
Quick facts
Founders: Ajith Alexander and Roby Kurien
Into: Data aggregation
Funds Raised: Rs 2 crore in angel funding
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