Startup Mantra: Staq simplifies green building applications in realty industry
Two sisters create first-of-its-kind platform making building process environmental friendly and easy
Pune: The adoption of sustainability in real estate has been sluggish. While the country’s first green building was built way back in 2005, the industry has been slow to pick up the added cost for such structures. Ankita Shroff Sarda and Pranati Shroff Munot, founders of Sustain and Save Private Ltd, started in 2020, saw an opportunity in the sector and built a platform, Staq.
Sarda, a computer engineer, and Munot, an architect, have taken a course in sustainability in Sweden. They both went on a fully funded fellowship on sustainable businesses and responsible leadership by the Swedish Institute in 2012 and 2016. Ankita is a startup enthusiast, while Pranati was working with a green building consultancy for more than ten years. During the lockdown, they both felt how they could come together and try to impact businesses on a net-zero journey.
Says Ankita, “The green certification process was really tedious with a builder having to make an application taking into account 28 different parameters. You have different materials that go into making a building, the cement, bricks, steel, even electric wires, light and air planning, water consumption, the task is no small one.”
They understood the pain points clearly as part of their consulting; now, they had to come up with a solution. Says Pranati, “We thought, why not create a platform that could address all the 28 parameters and simplify the process?” That was their eureka moment. Now they had to get down to building this platform.”
Addressing the pain points
As things stood, builders would send us their data in different formats to their consultant. We then collect this and calculate the point energy saving through various calculators. It was a very tedious and time-consuming exercise. We thought, “Why not have a tool where a builder simply feeds in the data, and our platform could do all the calculations to submit the application?”
Since both sisters lacked the deep knowledge needed to build a tech platform, the first thing they did was to hire a chief technology officer. Says Pranati, “We got a senior person from a well-known firm who had a decade-long experience with him. We also got green building experts and had a team of eight people initially who worked on creating our platform – Sustain and Save.”
To the market
After a year, Sustain and Save Private Ltd’s platform Staq was ready for a beta test. “Up until then, we were doing all this physically for about 150 clients across Maharashtra and Gujarat. So they were part of our beta test. We had several iterations to work on; for example, the technology had to be worked on to accept all formats of data, like JPEG, PDF, GIF, etc. Our app at the moment has 600 data points, where you can upload 28 + documents over five sections, and we have also created a directory of the different green products that can be used and their rating point. With such changes, we are now ready to launch our product in the market.
Why will this work?
“As of now, no one has this technology, so we are the first in the market,” says Ankita. “Our platform uses data over experience-based information. Moreover, we offer automation over manual processes, so a builder pays for the platform usage versus paying for consulting hours. And best of all, it gives verified outcomes instead of “best efforts”.
With our expertise and niche knowledge, we designed calculators and workflows where the client simply inputs over five different sections with data and engineering drawings, and our algorithm automates the process by reading the documents from the project manager to calculate the savings. It also, in real time, monitors the site data with the actual calculations to check the authenticity of the project. It saves 80% of your time.”
Funding
The sisters have used ₹1 crore to date. “As much as 12.5% of seed money is given by Ganesh Natrajan, who is a mentor and seed investor. We plan to raise about ₹5 crore in the next two years, largely for marketing and getting global.”
Future plans
Given their consulting background, they have a ready client base of 150 customers. Says Pranati, “Most of them are from Pune, Mumbai and some parts of Gujarat. Our plan is to serve them for a year and then focus on the South of India with cities like Bengaluru, Hyderabad etc. In two years, we aim to go global though we understand that our platform will be tweaked with the rules and data of different countries. Currently, we follow a SaaS model, charging customers ₹50,000 per annum. This is based on their requirements, of course. We’re ready.” With their first mover advantage, so is the real estate industry.
Pune-based Sustain and Save Private Ltd launched Staq, a platform to simplify the green building certification process, addressing the industry's slow adoption of sustainability. Founders Ankita Shroff Sarda and Pranati Shroff Munot, leveraging their expertise, created a tool that automates data entry and calculations. With plans to expand and raise funds, they aim to revolutionize real estate sustainability.