ET Bureau AHMEDABAD: Being a first-time entrepreneur, Shailendra Singh Rao set up a carbon consulting firm that is competing and leading against other similar firms, as the market for innovation in emission-reduction is growing rapidly in India. Rao launched the carbon credit and renewable energy consultancy, Envarrior Consulting Services, in 2010 and the company, which posted a profit within a year of its operation, is now expanding rapidly.
Rao, 29, returned to India in 2008 from Dubai and was looking for a more stable sector to work in. It was then that he took a plunge into renewable energy and climate-change sector, with no technical background to support him in his job. He worked with three companies, only to lose his job in 2012, when he faced issues from the top management.
Ironically, he became an expert in the sector during his three-company stint. While unemployed, he said, he survived his initial days with the help of his sibling and ex-beau. Rao added his ex-beau's advice and his former professor Indrasen Singh's Rs 5 lakh seed fund helped Rao to become an entrepreneur. In August 2012, he created Envarrior Consultancy and his first office was his bedroom.
The global carbon market is expected to reach a total of $400 billion by the end of 2015 and $3 trillion by 2020 as per Point Carbon, a market analysis firm. India, with its large and diverse economy, offers a huge potential in emission-reduction market that can be harnessed and Envarrior is hopeful to capitalise this growing markets. Indian market has a few major players like EKI Energy Services, Genol Consultants, Prozeal Consulting, General Carbon, Carbon Clear and Reconnect. With established players in the market, the corporate world was highly apprehensive of a startup's capability to deliver, as the sector has a history of high failure or delay ratio.
To differentiate from other players, Envarrior adopted two major strategies. First, outsourcing work to highly experienced experts and moving to projectbased payment to ensure high quality work with timely deliveries and second, providing fee refund as a written guarantee to its clients, where in Envarrior refunds 70 per cent of the amount. Both these strategies are generally not followed in the carbon credit consultancy segment and the refund guarantee turned out an attractive proposition for his prospective clients.
"We were confident about his inability to deliver so we made a challenging offer wherein in case if he completed the project, we would pay double the fee he quoted," said Mukesh Jariwala, CMD of Sumilon Industries, a Rs 4,000-crore diversified group based in Surat.
Rao, 29, returned to India in 2008 from Dubai and was looking for a more stable sector to work in. It was then that he took a plunge into renewable energy and climate-change sector, with no technical background to support him in his job. He worked with three companies, only to lose his job in 2012, when he faced issues from the top management.
Ironically, he became an expert in the sector during his three-company stint. While unemployed, he said, he survived his initial days with the help of his sibling and ex-beau. Rao added his ex-beau's advice and his former professor Indrasen Singh's Rs 5 lakh seed fund helped Rao to become an entrepreneur. In August 2012, he created Envarrior Consultancy and his first office was his bedroom.
The global carbon market is expected to reach a total of $400 billion by the end of 2015 and $3 trillion by 2020 as per Point Carbon, a market analysis firm. India, with its large and diverse economy, offers a huge potential in emission-reduction market that can be harnessed and Envarrior is hopeful to capitalise this growing markets. Indian market has a few major players like EKI Energy Services, Genol Consultants, Prozeal Consulting, General Carbon, Carbon Clear and Reconnect. With established players in the market, the corporate world was highly apprehensive of a startup's capability to deliver, as the sector has a history of high failure or delay ratio.
To differentiate from other players, Envarrior adopted two major strategies. First, outsourcing work to highly experienced experts and moving to projectbased payment to ensure high quality work with timely deliveries and second, providing fee refund as a written guarantee to its clients, where in Envarrior refunds 70 per cent of the amount. Both these strategies are generally not followed in the carbon credit consultancy segment and the refund guarantee turned out an attractive proposition for his prospective clients.
"We were confident about his inability to deliver so we made a challenging offer wherein in case if he completed the project, we would pay double the fee he quoted," said Mukesh Jariwala, CMD of Sumilon Industries, a Rs 4,000-crore diversified group based in Surat.
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