Sibabrata Das, co-founder, Atomberg, at the Durga Puja pandal of Pandu in his hometown in Guwahati
Image: Nilotpal Baruah For Forbes India
Mumbai, 2019. Thirty days. Almost seven years of a bumpy Atomberg ride was all set for a screeching halt in a month. “Thirty days were all we had,” recalls Sibabrata Das, who joined Manoj Meena as a co-founder in 2013. “We had run out of money,” rues Das, who made countless—and futile—funding pitches to almost all venture capital (VC) funds in India and abroad between 2016 and 2018. Unfortunately, nobody believed in the story of a bunch of upstarts who were hustling to disrupt an archaic ceiling fan industry with their energy-efficient smart fans.
(This story appears in the 15 December, 2023 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)