Smart Startups with Smarti9

Smarti9 Powers Electricity Networks while Disrupting Brazilian Energy Tech

It’s another great startup from Latin America! This time, we sit down with Diogo Fernandes, Co-Founder of Smarti9, an innovative energy startup.

How did you get this idea and which problems does it solve?

Smarti9 emerged from the Communications Laboratory (LCom) of the Federal University of Juiz de For a. The lab coordinators have 12 years of experience in telecommunications, specifically in power line communications (PLC). The laboratory team identified a trend on the electrical energy market, which is the automation of distribution and power consumption. However, this new way of consuming energy has a gap: how will the information collected by the new smart meters reach the distributors? To fill this void, three engineers founded Smarti9, the company that is developing the i9Híbrido, a product that transmits data collected by the smart meters to the distributors in a reliable and customized manner, combining two different mediums of communication — wireless and wired (using an already deployed infrastructure — the power line cables).

The other two co-founders, Prof. Moises Ribeiro and Prof. Fabrício Campos, had planned to found the startup a few years ago and saw me as the missing piece to complete the deal, due to my dual formation — Business Administration and Telecommunications Engineering — and the fact that my final course work was about the financial feasibility of Powerline Communications technology and Smart Grid being implemented on Brazil. Thus, in November 2012, Moises Ribeiro, Fabricio Campos and I founded Smarti9 with our own resources.

The first major obstacle we faced was how to generate money to develop innovative projects, without having products to be sold — we have solved this issue by accessing Brazilian’s funding agencies and by providing customized software and hardware development services. Thus, today we have around $ 600k ($400k from the funding agencies and $200k from services) invested in the startup, which is very important to a startup company grow.

What is the process in implementing your business? How are you planning to grow?

We have to access small and large customers and the electrical utilities companies, which have millions of consumer units in the country. That means, to enable the production of our product, large-scale sale is needed. We have an excellent contact network to achieve these customer benchmarks. Also, because we have an accumulated experience of more than 12 years providing telecommunication solutions to the market with emphasis on participation in entrepreneurship and innovation events around the world, we believe that our potential will convince them.

Certainly, we are focused in Brazil because we know their demands, but problems of data communication exist throughout the world, especially when it comes to a smart grid capable of supporting millions of new devices, which require higher quality of service levels, reliability and high safety. We are collecting a lot of data from other countries that are very close to the Brazilian reality, or even worse, and soon we will have an analysis of all the potential market in the world and will be able to expand.

How did you become an entrepreneur? Which challenges did you face?

Since the beginning of my course in Business Administration I had been planning to open my own business, and when the opportunity to work in telecommunications field arose, I did not think twice.

Most of my relatives worked in the public service for several years due to crisis in my country and high inflation. The idea of having it is own company for them was always far away. My family is still somewhat unsupportive of my being an entrepreneur. However, I believe that the recognition we have been receiving in the last months is helping me change their point of view.

The creation of spin-offs is not well seen in Brazil, translating research and innovation generated at the university and transferring to a private company — for commercial purposes — is still not very accepted, despite being a rising trend. The university, together with other institutions, is helping us raise awareness regarding the development of innovation and business partnerships together with private companies, university and government.