Felidae | Transforming Ordinary Bicycle Experience With Electric Bicycles

• BySheetal Sidhu     |    May 16, 2021

“The right age to become an entrepreneur is the age that you think is right for you”, said Mr Krishna Dhuri, Co-Founder, Felidae who accompanied by his Co-Founder Mr Anand Gawde had an elaborate interview with Startup story.

Shedding some more light on his companion’s  statement Mr Anand further told Startup story that “One should take pride and be passionate about their work, persistent hustle will take you to success!”

About the Founder’s

Both Mr Anand and Mr Krishna were very enthusiastic to unfold the story about their incredible product ‘the electric bicycle’, launched by their brand. India’s first indigenously developed electric bicycle. Through Felidae they were living the same dream, sharing a vision and ready to make sacrifices. Having been classmates early on in their life the two kept in touch even years later. Mr Krishna who was based out of Bangalore after working on challenging problems like locomotives, wind turbine controls at GE Research first laid the foundation for their company in 2017. Mr Anand was virtually connected and extended his help while the company was setting up until later when the company was shifted to Pune they started working together to build Felidae as Co-founders.  Being mechanical engineers both the co-founders had started off their careers working for some reputed companies. But the inspiration behind becoming entrepreneurs was what connects them.

“To add more value, we wanted to create the same things for the Indian market that we made for other first world countries while working in MNCS” said Mr Krishna.

When asked by the Startup story about the aim behind their brand, the co-founders said that they were trying “to make an impact in people’s life, they wish their brand to live on”. On similar lines, the Startup story asked them about their brand name. Mr Anand took great pride in telling us that Felidae is a biological name for a cat family, like Tiger, Jaguar that represents aggression and agility and their logo has been acknowledged and loved greatly by their customers and audience.

While they wish to keep the traditional experience of riding a bicycle, the idea to drive the green revolution and make an impact led them to the innovation of their product. Countering a problem like commuting in rural and urban India, electric bicycles can be the solution with easy accessibility, affordability, eco-friendly and with exceptional features like removable battery, e-brakes, display and can be connected to an app to track your bicycle and rides.

Turning challenges into potential opportunities

While discussing the possible competition Felidae might come across in the market, Startup story asked them about how they had managed to keep any kind of challenges and competition at bay. To this the founders replied that the first major setback that they faced was inability to find the right technology they needed for their product in the market. The team started with developing advanced controllers for the electric bicycles. But, later the team developed the technology for the complete eSystem, which involved components like motor, battery power pack, displays, GPS tracking system, eBrakes, cadence sensor to name a few.  There were challenges for getting good quality mechanical bicycles in India. Therefore the team designed their own frames and localized it’s manufacturing. So the product is more than 90% localized except for a few components like SHIMANO gear set, etc.

Now the company is working on several high-end products like ‘Mid-drive’ driven electric bicycles and the brand as quoted by Mr Anand “is capable of speaking for itself in terms of technology, design and performance”.

By working on the design and the model of their bicycle Felidae successfully overpowered its drawback turning it into an original brand to the core.

Another problem as mentioned by Mr Krishna was setting up the team, having worked on a ‘lean-model’ it was quite difficult to train fresh students to deliver quality work however  they accomplished setting up a team of 73 people and are very happy with the progress being made collaboratively.

Future plans and prospects

“Felidae is a brand made in India but for the world”, Mr Anand Gawde, Co-Founder, Felidae.

Answering the question determining their future plans the Co-Founders told Startup Story that they have a proper control over their design which gives certainty for sustainability.  Since affordability can prove to be a major issue they are introducing their products in a very affordable range provided the exceptional features. With an average of treading 60 kilometres at the speed of 25kmph they are quite accomplished as two-wheelers.

Further, they are meeting a great requirement from across the globe but for the time being have only marketed their product in India so far. They are looking for possible investors in order to add more to the product portfolio. They see a lot of scope for their product which can be used by all age groups alike and can be expanded in the sharing segment or for delivery purposes and companies offering rides etc.

A word of advice from the founders

The piece of advice the founders shared for their readers,

“The right age to become an entrepreneur is the age that you think is right for you”, said Mr Krishna Dhuri, Co-Founder, Felidae

“One should take pride and be passionate about their work, persistent hustle will take you to success”, Mr Anand Gawde, Co-Founder, Felidae

To know more about Felidae you can visit them:

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