StartIn: Welcome on our Spotlight series! Can you please give us a quick introduction about yourself and your team, please?
Aryan: Hi I’m Aryan and I’m a second-year undergraduate at Imperial College, studying Earth and Planetary Sciences and I’m also the co-founder and CEO of InX Tech! My team consists of Andy, Adi and Rohan. We’re all undergrads at Imperial respectively studying Earth and Planetary Sciences, EEE and Mech Eng. Andy is our COO, Adi is our CTO and Rohan is our operations lead. My team members have experience working on fuel cell tech, working at and creating their own startups
StartIn: Could you share a quick overview of your start-up? Your product, your market / target group, and in which stage are you currently in (MVP, funding, scaling, etc.)?
Aryan: InX Tech aims to bring the power of ocean data to everybody’s hands. We’re building the vehicles of change, specifically autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) that will be able to collect crucial ocean data in the cleanest and most efficient way possible whilst keeping costs down. We’re combining two methods of propulsion to reduce the need for recharging, constant monitoring of the vehicles and surface-based support (motherships). Our market of underwater robotics is quite tight knit considering there are few players in this space building vehicles like these, but by targeting the offshore renewables sector initially, we hope to secure customers and sea-trials early on as we continue to develop our technology. We are completing our proof-of-concept vehicle that we will test soon and have tangible data on. We’ll be raising funds and designing our first prototype after our POC is done!
StartIn: How will the AUVs – autonomous underwater vehicles differ from the ones that are currently in the market?
Aryan: Our AUVs are going to be powered by fuel cells instead of purely battery-based operation. This, combined with a low-power buoyancy engine will give us an energy envelope great enough to be able to operate the vehicles for a longer duration than current AUVs on the market. This removes the need for a significant amount of logistics such as complex launch and recovery systems. We want to be able to make our system as simple to use as possible so even non-scientists and those not trained to use them can harness their power to collect the ocean data they need. This, we hope will fulfill our dreams of a mapped, understood and accessible ocean.
StartIn: As a student co-founder, how do you keep your student team motivated, especially when the undergraduate course can sometimes be quite demanding?
Aryan: Consistently reminding my team of the end goal of contributing to such a global effort and what this could mean for humanity is a large source of inspiration for us. In addition, presenting exciting new opportunities to partner with the world’s greatest and most respected organizations/companies in this sector give us more and more ammunition to be able to continue working the way we are. When obstacles come in the way/or we are busy, we have to pivot our schedules around our degrees of course, since they can be very demanding, but the desire and possibilities of scalability and growth to make a difference is enough to keep us going.
StartIn: What do you think is the biggest challenge for ocean technology in general?
Aryan: I’d say the time it takes to design, manufacture, and deploy missions into the ocean is one to think about as the ocean is and will remain a difficult environment to operate in, but being able to deploy technology like ours quickly will inspire others to do the same. A collective effort to understand more and harness the power of the seas more is needed to progress our species forward.
I think also the logistics involved can potentially add time to deployment, so potentially creating solutions like ours that reduce logistics and admin altogether are the way forward.
StartIn: What advice would you give to students who are interested in starting a business centered around ocean technology and to students who want to learn more about ocean tech?
Aryan: Just go out there, make a name for yourselves and prove that the ocean is a beautiful place and deserves innovation just as much as any other sector, for we can do with all the innovation we can get in the ocean tech space. Join startups like InX Tech, join student programmes, take modules that will help and stay up to date with conferences such as Oceanology International and Ocean Business, they’re truly great places to learn about the industry, current solutions and how YOU could potentially be the next person to change the game in ocean tech.
StartIn: Thank you for sharing your story!
## Share your personal LinkedIn link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aryan-shah-15baa5198/
## Share your company LinkedIn link: https://www.linkedin.com/company/inx-technologies
## Share your company webpage: https://www.inxtech.org/
## Are you currently hiring / looking for investors?: Yes, we are looking to hire people, and we are very open to investment!