Kochi: Skillveri redefines skill training for welders

KOCHI: It was the skill he had in identifying opportunities and snapping them up that made Sabarinath. C. Nair a successful entrepreneur. His company Skillveri was born out of a critical need for skilled manpower in the welding sector.

Chennai-based Skillve-ri’s stall at the ‘India Skills Kerala 2018’ at Marine Drive here is a testimony to the effort the team has taken to evolve a cost-effective and time-saving skills training method. Hence they are now a market leader in making welding and spray painting training simulators.

“The simulator is mainly for training welders to improve their accuracy and hand skill. A welder can identify his own defects on the job and improve it, while an employer can easily evaluate the potential of his staff. The simulator helps the welder give almost a robotic quality output,” said Mr. Sabarinath, founder and CEO, Skillveri.

A native of Thiruvananthapuram, Mr Sabarinath realized the necessity of skill development while working in another firm. He and his friend Kannan Lakshmi Narayan then started Skillveri, first making a prototype of the simulator that went down well with the potential clients they pitched to.

“The price of the simulators ranges from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 15 lakh depending on the types of welding done. We have fifty customers across India, including Maruti Suzuki, Ashok Leyland and National Thermal Power Corporation Limited (NTPC) among others,” he said.

Talking about his startup journey, Mr. Sabarinath said: “Right from the word go, we got a positive response from customers. So we applied for incubation at IIT Madras's Rural Technology Business Incubator (RTBI) and we got selected.”

“Through the RTBI, we received soft-loans, which took care of our expenses for building and commercializing our first product, Skillveri AURA MIG welding simulator,” he said.

“In December 2018, we raised Rs 8 crore from Michael and Susan Dell Foundation as well as Ankur Capital. Then we developed a new line of simulators for spray painting, and revamped the existing welding simulators utilizing cutting edge extended reality (XR) technology,” he explained.