India's Bert Labs plans first Middle East office in Dubai next year

Bert Labs, an India-based technology start-up, expects to open its first Middle East office in Dubai by March 2023, as part of its plans to expand its presence in the Middle East.

“Over the next four years, Bert Labs’ target is $1 billion in revenues, 5 per cent of which will be realised from the Middle East. This will be largely driven from smart city and smart building projects,” Rohit Kochar, founder, executive chairman and CEO, told Khaleej Times in an interview.

The company’s main focus is on boosting energy efficiency using its proprietary software platform. “We use our software solution to create digital twins of the actual physical equipment, buildings or factories,” Kochar said. With the help of reinforcement learning, which mimics human behaviour, the company helps in creating virtual models that boosts efficiency of the equipment. “We are committed to boost efficiency by at least 30 per cent,” Kochar said.

The company is targeting growth of 500 per cent every year for the next four to five years. “80 per cent of our targeted revenue will come from developed markets – the UK, Europe and the Middle East,” Kochar said. Bert Labs is aiming for an US IPO latest by the 2026-27 financial year, he added.

Being focused on energy efficiency, the Middle East is a fertile ground for Bert Labs’ expansion plans. “The Middle East is a very big market because everywhere there is air conditioning — from schools to colleges hotels airports, office complexes, hospitals smart cities. These are huge energy guzzlers centred around HVAC (heating ventilation air conditioning),” Kochar said.

Sustainability thus forms the core around which Bert Labs aims to help companies achieve their business transformation goals. The company 49 clients globally, who have either signed contracts or in the process of signing tem. “The target is the reduction of carbon footprint of 6,000 metric tonnes across these clients annually,” Kochar said.

Thus over a period of 10-15 years, the company claims that its solutions can result in a company’s reduction of its carbon footprint by upto 210,000 metric tonnes. “This will also lead to boosting production efficiency by 3,000 per cent and cost savings of Rs119 trillion during the period,” Kochar said.

Established in 2017 in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru, Kochar said Bert Labs has been conceptualised to be a technology global conglomerate from India. “We will be connecting and talking with district cooling companies, commercial and residential owners for airports, hospitality, healthcare, office and mall complexes, and education establishments in the region,” Kochar said.

• Business