This Helmet Purifies The Air For Bike Riders India is home to the largest motorized two-wheeler commuters, with more than 37 million riders.
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Attention, bikers! Ever wondered if you could breathe fresh air despite being surrounded by pollution? Shaken up by the declaration of Health Emergency in December 2016, brother duo Amit Pathak and Mayank Pathak came up with an ingenious technology in the form of air purification system integrated helmets to cater to the health of bikers.
December 2016 - In the winters of 2016, Delhi suffered an unprecedented air pollution crisis to the point that the air quality reduced the life expectancy of NCR citizens by more than 10 years, according to a report by Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC). Mass media for the first time brings the issue to public awareness leading to mass psychosis. Amit Pathak and Mayank Pathak, Electrical Engineers from IIT and NIT respectively, designed a unique helmet with smart capabilities for two-wheeled commuters. They created a concept sketch of the helmet.
Concept sketch of the Helmet
July 2017 - Shellios was incorporated after a few months of developing the concept at CDAC NOIDA incubation facility. The start-up comes up with Air Purification System Integrated Helmets for bikers. The helmet comprises a filtration membrane, a blower fan, a Lithium-Ion battery, LED, PCB and a USB charging port. It also has a chin curtain to prevent re-entry of polluted air in the breathing area. As per lab tests, it helps reduce bikers' exposure to polluted air by more than 80 per cent. The company moves to IT Business Incubator at JSS STEP NOIDA and starts the product development journey from there.
March 2018 - Shellios receives seed funding from JSS STEP via NSTEDB scheme. The first version of the Clean Air Helmet is showcased to bikers at the Delhi Biker Fest. Relevant patents for the technology were filed in India and abroad.
June 2018 - The inventive air-purifying helmet by Shellios is selected by Qualcomm for the prestigious Design in India Challenge 2018. It bags a cash prize and certificate from the MEITY Secretary Ajay Sawhney.
October 2018 - Shellios Puros gets certified by BIS under the safety helmet category. The product was unveiled at NASSCOM Launch Event and at Indian Mobile Congress 2018.
January 2019 - Shellios raises its first investment round from Angel Investors including Karandeep Singh, Abhishek Mathur, Namita Sethi, Kartik Ganapathy, Pawan Belliappa Ganapathy and Anupreet Kaur Makhija.
June 2019 - Sales of the product commenced online via its website. First set of deliveries to paying customers made. Shellios appoints distributors in all major cities and works towards growing its operations and sales. The company is manufacturing around 1,000 helmets a month.
Amit Pathak, Founder, Shellios
"Shellios is working to enable safer mobility and productivity for crores of Indians by leveraging the power of IoT, sensors, data, enabled by an innovative array of industrial design form factors," says Amit Pathak, Founder and CEO, Shellios TechnoLabs.
(This article was first published in the October 2019 issue of Entrepreneur Magazine. To subscribe, click here)
