Friday, January 31, 2014: If you are also troubled by the draining battery of your smartphone, this solar power backpack designed by a Bangalore-based start-up, has come to your rescue.
Gandharv Bakshi and his fashion designer wife have come up with what they call Lumos, a bag with inbuilt battery to charge your mobile devices throuhg solar power. Bakshi came up with the idea of this innovative device during his field visits to the outskirts of Bangalore as a consultant in 2012, where his phone would run out of power.
A student of IIM Bangalore at that time, Bakshi chose to opt out of placements to design a prototype of the bag. He, along with his wife, came up with the idea of wearable technology and managed to build the prototype at the end of 2012. He made a bag with a solar panel fitted on top.
The couple, then, replaced the solar panel with solar fabric imported from China and the United States. They managed to come up with an unbreakable, waterproof and durable design for the bag. Last year, Google India invested Rs 25 lakh in the startup. Google India Managing Director and angel investor Rajan Anandan, said, “”I invested because they are solving a real problem. The company is addressing a large global market. Most of us run out of battery power on our phones and notebooks every day – especially true for people who travel extensively.” The bag is capable of charging at 3 watts per hour, which is capable of charging a mobile phone twice over.
Lumos bags are currently available on company’s website and cost about Rs 5,000 each. “About 70 per cent of the cost of the bag is its technology, which includes the solar fabric, the battery and the circuit,” Bakshi told ET. The duo plans to sell around 10,000 bags globally by the end of 2014. Lumos is also selling its backpacks through BumsOnTheSaddle, a Bangalore based bike and accessories retailer.
