Generation Start-up: Hub71 backed organization bets on sustainable goods for airlines

Simple ideas could make a big difference. This is exactly what the founders of The Concept, an Abu Dhabi established start-up believe in and are striving to build on.

The company is developing innovative products like a light-weight tray for meals along with other catering products for airlines that keep your charges down and improve hygiene. With the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic, that is clearly a compelling value proposition.

“We deliver sustainable items using hardware and technology innovation,” Yadhushan Mahendran, co-founder and leader of THE IDEA, says. “Our first merchandise that got us a whole lot of traction was an inflight meals tray that cabin crew provide foodstuff with in the aircraft.”

The business completely “re-engineered the meal tray” and reduced its weight by 30 per cent using sustainable material just like recycled water bottles that can help generate $1.5 million in fuel financial savings for an airline annually.

The Concept’s meal tray is a “big feature” during Covid 19, Mr Mahendran says, as the aviation industry looks to lessen costs to handle the crisis.

“Our product may be the world’s 1st anti-microbial inflight foodstuff tray," he explains. "It fights any microbes and strains of the coronavirus. We are also generating multiple catering goods for airlines and all our goods are anti-microbial.”

The company is also adding sensors to meal trays to determine how many food each passenger consumes throughout a journey. That will help airlines reduce food waste material.

Every year, $975m worthy of of untouched food and beverages wrap up in landfills from the aviation industry, he says.

“The tray becomes a smart system and ... the airlines can understand what passengers prefer to consume if they are travelling in one destination to the other,” Mr Mahendran adds.

The company released the product in the next quarter of 2020 and happens to be in a tender with two airlines from the center East and two from European countries. The value of the contract is certainly $15m. Russian airlines have also expressed interest.

Reducing costs is becoming more very important to airlines as income slumps because of travel restrictions to support the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Airline revenues will halve to $419 billion in 2020 as a result of crisis, according to the International Air Transport Association. Many airlines around the world have either furloughed their employees or cut careers to deal with the affect of the pandemic.

THE IDEA, which is part of tech accelerator Hub71 at Abu Dhabi Global Industry, aims to help expand expand its services and is targeting the area industry.

“We want to work with the center Eastern space agencies to solve waste management issues in space,” he says. “Waste is a difficulty in the shuttle or in the intercontinental space station because they can’t get rid of it, so we want to develop alternatives for that.”

The company, that was founded by Mr Mahendran along with Maria Sobh and Muhammad Rijal in 2017 has up to now secured $250,000 worth of investments. This consists of a private angel investor and Intelak, the UAE’s earliest aviation-oriented incubator. In addition, it received financing from the Sharjah Entrepreneurship Centre's Sheraa incubator programme, and from Mubadala Expenditure Enterprise through The Gothams-Hub71 Accelerator program. It really is planning to raise a further $1m to improve expansion and develop services.

The Gothams programme targets building another generation of aerospace and defence start-ups as the UAE eyes a dominant position in the sector. The country launched a new defence organisation named Edge earlier this year by merging 24 corporations into one.

Being portion of Hub71 with incentives for just two years including free housing, work place and well being insurance for up to five employees is aiding the business to grow even through the pandemic, Mr Mahendran says.

“They [Hub71] really understand start-ups constrained by budgets plus they have a specific method of working and they have a sizable network of companies in Abu Dhabi, that they can easily put us in touch with.”

Hub71 was create in March 2019 by the Abu Dhabi federal government, Mubadala Investment Enterprise, Abu Dhabi Global Industry, Microsoft and SoftBank. This is a flagship initiative of the Dh50bn Ghadan 21 monetary stimulus programme.

“Our target is to expand in Abu Dhabi and trying to build we and potentially possess a Dubai business office, and soon somewhere in North America aswell.”

The company is likely to hire new software builders from January as it targets diversifying its product offering.

It is also seeking to work with micro-mobility companies such as scooter and car-sharing businesses to provide them with anti-microbial goods for touch points like steering wheels, scooter handles and scooter buttons.

“The hardware and technology that people built works extremely well in other industries aswell and works extremely well in medical technology and already got traction in one of the top rated medical companies in the UAE," Mr Mahendran says. "It could even be utilized in academic institutions and cafeterias.”

Q&A good with Yadhushan Mahendran, co-founder of The Concept

1. What powerful start-ups do you wish you could have started?

A company that I truly admire currently is SpaceX. Just how that they have reimagined transport to space in a sustainable, reusable approach with the overall goal of reducing space transport cost is amazing. I truly admire them mainly because Elon Musk and his group must have genuinely thought in themselves to accomplish something hence revolutionary that a lot of people thought was impossible.

2. What is your perspective for the company?

My vision, or the collective vision of all founders at THE IDEA is usually to be a company that has paved ways to create sustainable products in multiple verticals through the mix and medium of sustainable hardware and data collection technologies. To get at the forefront, our eyesight is to present our own effective closed-loop manufacturing and recycling facility within the center East region, specifically within the UAE, that may allow our ecosystem to build unique circular economy goods that are made in the UAE. We want to create sustainability locally.

3. What's your mantra for accomplishment?

My mantra for success isn't being afraid to require help when you need it.

4. Where do you discover yourself and The Concept in five years?

In five years, I start to see the Concept and myself functioning closely with SME’s, corporates and government entities around the center East and especially in the UAE to build up products that are sustainably driven and financially feasible. I discover us shaping the content Covid-19 ecosystem of sustainability in your community.

5. How do you envision a post-Covid 19 world?

I envision a post-Covid19 world to end up being one that allows space for a brand new new bedroom for innovation, with different industries popping up as it has already began to. A post-Covid-19 environment in my eyes will also be one that will be heavily automated, meaning physical experience may end up learning to be a niche or luxury.

6. What new skills have you learnt in the process of starting the business?

Along the way of starting THE IDEA, I have learnt a few new abilities including how to build relationships various stakeholders, project managing, how to convert an idea to reality, but the most important trait has been to be able to produce bold decisions regardless of the size of the company or stakeholder that I am coping with.