Rajendra Khare, Co-Founder, Chairman & MD, SureWaves

Our inspiration has come from the fact that today there is an overload of superfluous information, innumerable distractions and severe paucity of time. Our vision is to provide 'oxygen for minds' by making available meaningful, relevant, purifying, refreshing and energising content, all within the short time available to viewers on the move.

Rajendra Khare has been a seasoned entrepreneur since the days he founded a company called Armedia Labs in 1997, which was later acquired by Broadcom USA, which is today regarded as one of the largest companies in the business of chip making. During his stint at Armedia Labs, Khare headed a team that developed HDTV/MPEG decoder on a single chip.

He is also the Founder Chairman of the India Semiconductor Association (ISA). Prior to ISA and Broadcom, Khare had worked with companies like Arcus Technologies, Wipro and Tata. Having mastered in Electronics, Khare has filled filed for 25 US patents under his name.

In a freewheeling conversation with exchange4media's Rishi Vora, Khare talks about his company SureWaves and shares his vision for the Indian media convergence industry, providing 'oxygen to minds'. Excerpts:

Q. You have tied up with Plasmanet. Could you share some information on the deal with them?

We started working on the SureWaves technology a year back, and at that period of time our objective was to deliver the right solution in the quickest possible time. We did a study on the current technologies available in the market and that is when we came across Plasmanet. There was no point in re-inventing the wheel when the wheel was already available. So, we got the starting signage technology from Plasmanet and built greater solutions on a platform that already existed. It is a long term strategic partnership. We have created media convergence solutions via our technology to provide end-to-end business solutions to enterprises.

Q. How do you ensure cost effectiveness while ensuring that content reaches the right people, at the right time?

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Cost effectiveness comes from scalability. To achieve scalability, on one end of the spectrum we do everything manually to know what information should go and to whom, and how it does go through and what medium. Our systems know and detect what kind of people are present at a particular place, and just like the Internet, our systems identify customers and their responses with the information they were sent via the technology. As mentioned earlier, we have created a lot of automation, which results in cost efficiency.

Q. How do you ensure that you offer value to brands that use your platform to communicate their offerings?

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There is a lot of fragmentation in the media, and thus, the efficiency factor is not very high with a lot of spillage and wastage. Ideally, you would like to aim and shoot. But right now what is happening is a carpet bombing approach, and as against that if you were aiming and shooting, the value of each penny that you will spend will be very high. So, cost efficiency for a brand really comes in with this aim and shoot approach that we have come up with, and that is where I think we offer huge value to owners of brands who want to deliver their message to their consumers.

Moreover, our technology is not just a one-way process for a brand to communicate. We also make sure that brands know what happened with that message since we allow interactivity through a feedback mechanism. Brand managers can know the degree of brand recall that has happened in the customer's mind, which can then result in a purchase decision. A customer can choose from the various options available in the store through the display screen, which has all information about where a particular product is placed in the store and its price. More importantly, our technology enables customers to complete a transaction then and there via Bluetooth and GPRS applications. In this way we are completing the loop of first educating, engaging, and then empowering customers to take a purchase decision.

Q. What was the initial investment made in the business?

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I won't be able to divulge that number, but I can tell you that we have put our own money on the table. In the course of the last one year when we started to develop the technology for SureWaves, we started creating a team, and today we are a team of 40-plus. So far, we have not gone to conventional venture capitalists. We founders have put our own money and we also raised money from those people who believed in the technology and thought that this concept could work well in future. We have been in the market for the last four months, and we have been talking to our customers, who in turn have given us positive response. So yes, we are definitely looking to scale our operations, and create more partnerships. We may think of raising some money externally as we grow.

Q. Barring the entry of SureWaves in the market, how do you think India fares in the business of consumer engagement in via different platforms like mobile, laptops, etc?

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It's not just the question of India, rather it is a global problem. It's the process of evolution. The engagement angel was really not driven through technology so far. There are some current solutions, but none of them are driving engagement to the extent we are driving. So yes, we have created our own market and it is also very much aligned with our philosophy of creating 'oxygen for minds'.

Q. How do you differentiate yourself from other media that is available for advertisers?

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So far, media has only been able to provide content to viewers and an opportunity for marketers to advertise. However, media was not being used by an enterprise to realise its business goals. Our whole strategy is from the content angel, any content that reaches should have a property of oxygen. When I use the term oxygen, I mean the content should be highly relevant, it should have the positive aspect to it, we don't want to indulge in trivia and frivolous things. If a person thinks that a particular information is highly important for him, we make that information available on his mobile phone or on the display instantly. Depending on where he is, we package the information then and there and deliver it on the spot. I don't think any other media does this kind of a thing.

Q. What are the services that you provide to various enterprises?

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We offer business solutions to enterprises, which could be retail, a large corporate, a transport company, etc. We take care of the hardware and software required, the content that needs to be created and its monetisation - we close the complete loop, including monetising the channel in terms of advertising revenues. We are also looking at affiliate partners, and our strategy is to be able to create a network of networks, where there are several people having an on-ground presence in terms of having created the screens, but maybe not as much technology to really power that network. So, for those people we also create a platform to power the network with the right technology and content, without which there would be no revenue generation.

Q. Penetration of high-end mobile phones in India is less in terms of usability. How do you plan to create better awareness or create user-friendly interfaces for such audiences?

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The most important thing here is that people need to be educated that such a concept is possible. This is where we are combining the power of display, which is where the educational aspect comes in. The display itself will tell you that these are the things that you need to do on your mobile phone. So, for the very first time when you would be interacting with the screen, you would be guided by the display itself.

To answer your questions on how many phones have Bluetooth and GPRS, I think the number of phones having these applications will only increase. 40 per cent of all phones produced today have Bluetooth, so I don't think this is worry for us. Moreover, the cost of Bluetooth is increasingly falling, and hence, I think there will be a time when all mobile users will have Bluetooth technology on their phones.

Q. Any plans to expand operation in the overseas market?

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Not yet. We want to first expand our reach in the Indian market. But, we do have overseas tie-ups, including the one with Plasmanet, which has its presence in the UK market. If you ask me on a long term basis, then the answer is definitely yes. In fact, it is one of our objectives to have global presence and provide end-to-end services all over the world.

Q. You had said that the technology foundation had come from the creative and media sides. Please elaborate.

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The technology foundation includes the aspect of what goes where, which is where the engineers come in. On the content side, once you have the knowledge of a demographic, you can easily interact as discussed earlier. On the media side, we have created a nascent medium negating the media fragmentation that has happened. The creative people come in at a time when you have to present the information in the most meaningful and appropriate way. We have a group company that specialises in content adaptation. So, from a customer's point of view, we are in the business of delivering complete end-to-end solutions and our creative team ensures that the content reaches in the most appropriate fashion at the desired location.

Q. What is your marketing and distribution strategy?

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For marketing, you first need to have a differentiated technology. But technology alone is no good, it needs to be combined with creative content and then only it becomes meaningful to the TG. Our technology has maximum use in the media and enterprise space, and hence, we exchanged thoughts with the top people in the media world, and they found that the challenges that they were facing were getting answered by the technology that was created by SureWaves. We are looking at joining hands with top-notch marketing professionals who understand the customer challenges and co-create a solution for their needs. We already have a strong marketing team, and we hope to show good results in times to come.

Q. It's a nascent medium as you said. Do you see any competition rising? What is your strategy for that?

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Competition is most likely to come in. For this we have invested a lot in intellectual property protection and have patented our technology. Secondly, our idea is to bring in continuous innovations on the technology that we have already created. So in that sense, even if competition arises, we would be at a superior position offering much better services.

Q. You have been the MD of Broadcom India and then spearheaded the Indian Semiconductor Association (ISA). Did you always want to start your own venture?

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I have had an entrepreneurial stint prior to this as well. I was one of the founders of a company called Armedia Labs, which was a technology company set up in 1997. We were in existence for two years, and in that time we created the technology for the world's first single chip high definition TV decorder. At that period of time our dream was to create a technology of global relevance from India. As soon as the digital TV standards were announced in the US, we were one of the first companies to set up our business in that area. We were then acquired by Broadcom due to the relevance they found in the kind of technology features we offered at that time. Broadcom today is the world's largest chip maker in the digital video space, and Armedia technology has been a key driver for this success. To be honest, as a technology start-up we didn't have the capability to manufacture and produce the end product in terms of the chip business, and that is where the synergy came between Broadcom and Armedia Labs.

When I was involved with ISA, the whole charter of ISA, which was started in 2004, was to see a transformation in India. A lot of innovations and product developments that happen say in the US or other nations, people aren't aware that a good amount of intellectual properties have come from India. Yet these high-end technologies are not owned by Indians, and that is where the ISA's mission comes into the picture. They want to make India a technological hub, to the extent of being manufactures and distributors of high-end chips and technology products around the world.

Q. Could you explain the technology or other aspects behind the communication channel that you have created?

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The communication channel that we have created is about delivering the right kind of content to a specific location based on the knowledge of the local demographic. It is about moving content from one place to another. What matters most is what content should be moved, and to determine this, we have created a lot of automation in our systems and procedures. Our technology enables us to aggregate content from different sources, filter and deliver it to the right people, at the right place. The whole idea is to drive consumer engagement in a real time fashion.

This is the age of media convergence, and I believe content can be delivered on any platform, be it through a display device, mobile device or the Internet. What we have also done on our applications is that we have created the possibility of carrying content over any media with the ability to interchange positions from mobile to a display screen, from a display screen to the web, from the web to mobile phones and then to TV.

Q. And how does this give value to the retailer?

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For the retailer, what we have done is that he can now change the prices of his products at different stores in cities and towns across India. He can control his operations from a centralised location, changing the price of goods according to the time and depending on the inventory in his stores. Our platform allows him to interact with his systems and enables him to make these immediate changes.

Q. What was the inspiration behind such a venture?

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Our inspiration has come from the fact that today there is an overload of superfluous information, innumerable distractions and severe paucity of time. Our vision is to provide 'oxygen for minds' by making available meaningful, relevant, purifying, refreshing and energising content, all within the short time available to viewers on the move.

Q. You are piloting your systems with a few lead organisations. Which are these organisations?

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Unfortunately, most of these organisations don't want to be identified as yet. But yes, we are piloting in various sectors like retail, retail banking, logistics, and some corporates.