India doesn’t have much resources even for developing a prototype, says a “Hardware Tech Startup Founder”

Fin, a wearable ring shaped device, a product by RHLvision recently raised $100,000 on the crowd-funding site Indiegogo.

The tech startup, launched the crowd-funding campaign on February 8, 2014. The campaign which was supposed to last till February 22, 2014 was completed 5 days earlier, as the company reached its goal.

We spoke with Rohildev, Founder, RHLVision about his latest innovation Fin, on funding and other prospects of the startup.

[Edited Excerpts]

Inc42: Tell us about Fin?   

Rohildev: Fin is a stylish thumb ring with gesture-control capabilities and has been wowing technophiles with the sheer simplicity of its concept and its ease of use. Fin is fitted with a bunch of sensors that can detect finger taps, swipes and identify various parts of the palm by calculating their distance from the thumb. It uses smart Low Energy Technology such as Bluetooth for communicating with connected devices.

Fin can transmit these natural gestures as commands to any connected Bluetooth device, such as a smartphone, a music player, a gaming console, a digital interface inside a car, a television set or a home automation device.

Inc42: Why did you choose a crowdfunding campaign instead of traditional investment for Fin?   

Rohildev: We developed our second prototype. We are from India. Here we don’t have much resources even for developing a prototype. So, we chose indiegogo for getting the required fund.  Also got some good customers and their feedback. We believe that this will help us improve a lot from the customer needs.

In our case, crowdfunding is good. We need money as well as customer’s feedback. This is a kind of wearable device so it should be a perfect match for customer’s lifestyle also.

Inc42: What was the vision behind launching RHLvision?  

Rohildev: I had started developing softwares during my 10th standard and continued the software development and during my engineering I thought about the Human-Machine Interactions. I made a software that could be used to control windows PC without touching the computer. Then I planned to start the company RHLvision. I formed the name from my name Rohildev. I created RHL from Rohil and joined Vision from Computer Vision technologies.

Inc42: Tell us about the team?  

Rohildev: I worked alone for some months and raised the investment. Ater that I built the team with my friend circle.

Inc42: Being Indian and going into wearable tech and artificial intelligence, do you feel any challenges in comparison to US startups in the same space?

Rohildev: Two things.First one is the availability of hardware resources. Here, we don’t have that much hardware resources to develop the device. The second thing is customers. Technology adapting customers are very few here in india.

Inc42: Tell us your views about Indian startup ecosystem in regard to tech oriented hardware startups?  

Rohildev: We were incubated in Startup Village, Cochin, Kerala. It was an awesome platform for starting a company as we were students. They were not charging anything. We could work freely, use internet, electricity, space and more. They always gave their maximum while helping us develop this device.

I like the startup ecosystem here, because everyone is helpful . Most of the companies are partnering with others for developing their product.

Inc42: What’s your take on Indian investment scenario when it comes to hardware products and high end technology such as wearable tech?  

Rohildev: Investors in India are much more focussed on software, I think. They feel hardware is the most risky investment. And the number of product loving people here is very less. But, I raised our first investment, INR 15 Lakh from one good guy from India, Ritesh Malik, he really loved our idea and the vision of the company.

Inc42: Are you shipping Fin in India, what is the kind of traction are you looking at, in the next one year?  

Rohildev: We have got a lot of manufacturing contacts and we have still not finalized it, as yet.