Hands-on skilling gets immersive twist

CHENNAI: You may have played basketball on earth, but can you imagine how it would be to play the game on planets like the Moon or the Mars? Well, using extended reality (XR) and virtual reality (VR), the IIT-M incubated Skillveri makes such a possibility a reality, as the edtech firm looks to equip learners with its simulator platform to hone their skills effectively.

So, it was not a surprise that an experiment held at the G-20 summit in Chennai last year, found young and old making a beeline to Skillveri’s demonstration booth, jostling to try their hand at basketball in the virtual/augmented world. “Having seen our ability to create a simulator that had been successfully tested in training factory workers in acquiring skills such as welding and painting, we were asked by IIT-M director V Kamakoti to come out with an offering that would be relevant to school, higher education and skill development,” Skillveri CEO Sabari Nair told DTNext recently.

The rationale behind the basketball experiment was to explain concepts like parabola or gravity in physics in a gamified way. Apart from painting and welding, the XR and VR embedded multi-skill simulation technology (immersive experience in an augmented or virtual environment) has been used to train factory workers and handymen in acquiring skills like blasting, HVAC repair and solar panel installation.

Skillveri was started in 2012 by the engineer-turned entrepreneur Sabari along with Vortex founder and serial inventor Kannan Lakshminarayan. After cutting his teeth in deeptech, Sabari’s association with his co-founder began at Vortex (known for energy efficient ATMs), where he moved to technology marketing and product management. The duo founded Skillveri to resolve the skill-gap problems and to use XR and analytics to provide error-free dexterity to the manufacturing industry.

Moving out of the IIT Madras environs, Skillveri emerged as a leading player in the XR multi-skill simulation space, bagging awards such as the national innovations for skills challenge of NSDC, Ministry of Skill Development. Sabari is also on the Prime Minister’s Champions of Change panel on EdTech & Skills.

From building single product, it soon expanded to paint simulator, thanks to a mentoring hand by the former Berger Paints MD Biji K Kurien. “He was involved in the day-to-day operations too,” says Sabari. Introduction of several features to the existing product portfolio, resulted in orders from Pune and Pollachi in Coimbatore, among others. Skillveri also found acceptance in the US market, considering the community college backbone that emphasises on vocational training there.

“From Rs 3.5 crore, India revenues dwindled to Rs 6 lakh or so, hitting all our plans in 2020, when COVID happened. The big change was we became a SaaS or software as a service player as opposed to pure hardware player, much to the surprise of the two India-centric impact funds that had invested in us,” Sabari says, noting that Bluehill Capital invested a small sum.

Eventually, the pivoted business model led to downsizing the pre-pandemic team of 40 people to 10. “Now, we are a 20-member team,” he says, and adds Skillveri turned profitable in 2019. Seeing almost a 50 per cent growth year-on-year, the Rs 8.5 crore Skillveri has reported 100 per cent growth too sometimes. Besides 100 schools in the US, it caters to 70 ITIs (Industrial Training Institutes) and 80 companies in India and ten small firms in Europe and the UK.

Last year, in January, Skillveri entered the medical field, to develop simulators for the rehabilitation of stroke patients. Prototyping phase may not be immediate, but for now, Sabari has his hands full in the skilling and reskilling arena, as he shuttles between the US (to manage Skillveri Inc single-handedly) and Chennai.

AUGMENTING SUCCESS

Skillveri’s clients include: Tata Motors, Maruti, Hero, TVS, Hyundai, Kia, Piaggio, Indian Railways, TAFE, JCB, Nippon Paint, Asian Paint, CHN Industrial, Berger, Ambuja Cement, ITIs, community colleges / institutes in the US

Fully immersive 3D view and HD resolution inside the VR helmet, makes the training method eco-friendly and saves cost on consumables (savings to up to 70%)

Has proven results of 50% less in work rejection, 40% less reworking and product wastage

Reduces risk of health hazards, as the training period involves experimentation and long hours of working

Skillveri set up its North America headquarters in Delaware, US

Skillveri to establish UK HQ in Birmingham, where it began operating in April 2023

Their platform customises instructions in 18 Indian languages and 7 European languages