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All the IITs that came up during the Nehruvian era in the 50s and 60s were
built with generous foreign assistance. IIT Bombay was no exception-in this
case, it was the Soviet connection. No wonder, in its early days campus
computers gave error warnings prefaced with 'Achtung'; the first mainframe
to come was a Russian Minsk II while teachers routinely visited Moscow for
training. Notwithstanding this undertone of communist Soviet influence in the
early days, IIT Bombay has undergone an ideological volte-face today. Not only
is it a strong votary of market economics, it has also become the breeding
ground for budding entrepreneurs, thanks to the Kanwal Rekhi School of
Information Technology (KReSIT).
KReSIT first shot into prominence, as a business incubation school, when one
of its first start-ups, iPortia, got funded by Rakesh Mathur of Junglee.com.
While the travails of technology slump impacted iPortia, later, another early
start-up, MyZus, working in the wireless domain, achieved greater fame. And as
they say, success breeds success: MyZus was followed into the Hall of Fame by
Herald Logic operating in the areas of reconfigurable software and intelligent
enterprise applications. The baton to carry on KReSIT's impeccable reputation
now seems to have passed on to three contenders-e-infinitus, Embedded Robot
Technologies (eRT) and Powai Labs. And if market acceptability can be looked as
a viable parameter for success, Powai Labs seems to be the next star in the
making.
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“Three of the top five silicon design companies have already validated our products-in fact, two of them in the US and one in Europe are already our clients. There is no doubt that we are on the verge of becoming a significant global player”
-Reapen Tikoo, CEO, Powai Labs |
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 Incubated
in 2002, Powai Labs is developing hardware accelerators to verify large scale
design in VLSI. The idea is to offer emulation cards that are affordable for
every individual engineer in a chip design firm so that they need not test their
designs on a big emulation box. Reapen Tikoo, CEO, Powai Labs and an IIT Bombay
graduate says with understandable pride and overwhelming confidence, "Three
of the top five silicon design companies have already validated our products-in
fact two of them in the US and one in Europe are already our clients. There is
no doubt that we are on the verge of becoming a significant global player."
Industry watchers would probably scoff at such over-confidence, some might
think it presumptuous, but the fact is if all goes well over the next few
months, Tikoo might not be very far off the mark. At least on the technology and
business model front, you can find little to fault Powai Labs with. Presence of
micro-electronics experts like Dr Krishna Sabharwal and Prof. Madhav Deasi as
the advisories for the company, assures one of its technology pedigree. And,
unlike many other startups in the past, even the business model and the proof of
concept looks and feels sound enough.
Currently, the exorbitant pricing of tools for verifying and validating the
designs is the biggest bottleneck for any chip design company. Typically, the
big emulation boxes and simulation accelerators cater to a design size of 50
million ASIC gates at costs ranging from $2-4 mn per unit. Add to this the
vexatious issue of under utilization. There are no cost-effective options for
companies which want to test smaller design sizes in the range of 2 mn ASIC
gates as they still have to test their designs on a bigger emulation box. This,
Tikoo explains, effectively means that the company ends up under utilizing a
product that has a much higher capacity. Since the testing and validation
process comprises around 70-80% of the actual product's cost, controlling the
cost of testing and validation is crucial to the cost of the end product. Powai
Lab's IMAGE 2.5 (2.5 mn gates) at $75,000 and IMAGE 1.2 (1.2 mn gates) at
$32,000 are aimed at addressing exactly this anomaly.
But while pricing and technology expertise are indeed the company's strong
points, it is marketing that can turn out to be Powai Lab's Achilles Heel.
Though it already boasts of some big names in its client roster (Tikoo, however,
flinches from naming them), the budget required for marketing products in the US
can prove to be extremely prohibitive. It is exactly this factor which has
proved to be the nemesis for many promising companies. Right now, Tikoo is
relying more on creating publicity through PR, which he believes could prove to
be a shot in the arm for marketing activities later on. But, even here he needs
to be careful in choosing the perfect pitch for his spin doctors, otherwise it
might turn out to be an exercise in futility.
While, today, it might be premature to proclaim Powai Labs as a global leader
of the future, it is hard not to get affected by Tikoo's infectious
enthusiasm. Whether that along with its technical expertise would be enough to
carry the round is anybody's guess, but if it succeeds, this can be the
biggest feather in KReSIT's cap till now.
Rajneesh De in
Mumbai
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