“In FY24 we are aiming for Rs 10 crore in revenue,” he said. “This year maybe the US revenue may overtake the Indian revenue. During the pandemic the demand for our products went up well.”
Nair explained that in the US, 95% of Skillveri’s revenue is in SaaS. Customers buy off-the-shelf VR headsets and download their software from the App Store and get a license from Skillveri. In India, the model is different, Skillveri works as a one-stop solution and one-time sale rather than the annual licensing model like in the US.
The company said it has postponed immediate funding and is re-investing its profit into the US and UK markets.
“We are seeing a lot of traction in the US. We are exploring whether we can acquire a VR development studio. The acquisition would be in India but service will be to the US as we have a decent distribution in the US. So business development will happen in India and product development in the US.”
Skillveri aims to improve efficiency in the painting and coating industry in India where most of the painting happens by brush and tool as compared to the West where spray painting is utilized, which makes it four times faster.
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Nair said that when re-painting a house with brush and tools, the discomfort from the paint makes it uninhabitable for five to seven days, but spray painting gets the job done in two days.“The assumption that technology adoption in India is slow is wrong and we see multiple opportunities in India for our technology. We already have built a technology where with the help of VR (Virtual Reality) headsets, contractors can make quotes for the paint job and recommend different types or shades of paint,” he said.
The CEO also said that they are currently in the process of developing two products for next year’s launch, in association with painting companies, aimed at improving productivity
One product will be aimed at contractors and architects to better digitize, estimate, and visualize painting requirements. The second product is a sealant application aimed at customers in automotive painting and decorative painting.
Nair added that the vocational education institutions and technical education in India needed a revamp, to smoothen the process of early adoption of technology.
“As India is competing with China on the manufacturing side, the quality of output, graduates from ITI (Industrial Training Institute) or engineering colleges is not up to industry standard. We find that graduates from North American colleges are more employable, possessing 50 percent of the skills to work from day one, which in the Indian context need a three-month training”, he said.
Skillveri’s VR and XR technology is utilized in over 70 Indian ITI and over 50 schools in the US. Nair said that they are working with the government to expand this further.
“We have set up an XR lab in Government ITI Cuttack which can cater to multiple trades such as welding, and spray painting. With the sponsorship from the German steel manufacturer, ThyssenKrupp group, we have made a lab that has 17 assimilators for both welding and painting at Government ITI Aundh”, he said.
