Our investment in Bidaal - redefining workplace safety and productivity for heavy industries

At Arali, we are committed to backing innovative solutions that address nuanced challenges in traditional industries. These traditional industries are increasingly adopting technology and are putting some serious resources behind tech and AI adoption and this is a clear tailwind. Our recent investment in Bidaal aligns with our recurring investment theme of digitizing traditional industrial segments -this time focusing on workplace safety and industrial productivity through AI-driven solutions.

In industries like mining, oil & gas, Infrastructure, Ports, Heavy industrial/manufacturing, maintaining safety while optimizing productivity is critical. Plant managers often struggle to ensure smooth operations, minimize risks, and meet regulatory requirements without disrupting productivity.

Bidaal tackles these challenges head-on with its suite of AI-powered computer vision modules, including Bidaal-S.M.I.L.E (Autonomous in-plant/facility/port industrial traffic management), Bidaal-Lens (AI based workplace safety monitoring to reduce downtime & ensure a safe workplace), and Bidaal-W.I.S.E. (Automated Illumination/Lighting adequacy assessment), which deliver real-time insights and incident detection to improve safety standards and streamline operations.

The timing is particularly favourable, as many of the large industrial groups in India and multi-nationals are placing a renewed emphasis on leveraging AI & digitization to solve existing business problems. With government initiatives making it easier for startups to collaborate on large projects, Bidaal is well-positioned to capitalize on this trend—they've already won their first few projects through such a route. Additionally, their partnerships with larger classic SIs (System Integrators) as channel partners to help mitigate the typical entry barriers for smaller firms in this space.

While processing CCTV camera & video feeds has been around, what sets the Bidaal solution apart is their ability to contextualize AI and video/image analytics specifically for heavy industries, enabling quicker sales cycles and stronger client relationships. It this contexuatlision that has driven the company to incorporate aspects of workflow, compliance, document management & real time intervention relevant to the target client business segment. While the solution focusses on workplace safety & productivity the eventual & real focus is to enhance throughput and increase revenue productivity & asset utilization.

The team’s expertise, with two co-founders being mining & industrial engineers, brings a deep understanding of the industry’s needs. These industries otherwise have a reputation for being slow & inflexible and not adopting technology and hence not ‘glamorous’ for classic tech founders to build solutions for them. These segments probably hence need ‘non-glamorous’ founders like Rishi & Kalash and non-glamorous investors like Arali Ventures!

We think it’s a perfect combination, or atleast we hope! Looking forward to the ride & learnings. ?