Graviky Labs Business Model Analysis and Recommendations

This report analyzes the business model of Graviky Labs, a startup that converts pollution particles into ink. It discusses the business canvas model, critical success factors, and potential downside risks. Recommendations for the business model are also given.

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Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary
The given report aims to throw light on the various operations of a new startup based company
named Graviky Labs in India. The company converts soot emitted from the cars to ink which is a
fresh concept and has received worldwide acclamation. The given report has discussed various
aspects of the business deconstruction ranging from the business canvas model to the
relationship between its nine key building blocks. Certain critical success factors important for
the business have been discussed along with the potential causes of downside risk.
Recommendations to the business model of the startup have been given.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Description of the Business enterprise............................................................................................3
Business canvas model....................................................................................................................4
Relationship between the 9 blocks of business canvas model.........................................................6
Critical success factors for the business..........................................................................................7
Potential causes of Downside risk...................................................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
Recommended Changes to business model.....................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
The given report will be discussing the various aspects of the business canvas model of
the business Graviky lab which is originated in 2015. The startup is from India and has achieved
instant success and fame (AIR-INK™., 2018). A brief business introduction will be given
followed by the description and the analysis of the business canvas model. Recommendations
with respect to the business model and critical success factors will be discussed.
Description of the Business enterprise
The Company - Graviky Labs
Name of Founders - Anirudh Sharma, Nikhil Kaushik, Nitesh Kadyan
City – Bangalore
Revenues – NA
Headcount – 6
Industry - Clean tech/recycling/energy
The company belongs to the Recycling and energy industry which has been able to raise
an amount of Rs.80 lakh presently and has been evaluated at Rs.80 crore as of 2017. Established
in 2015, the given investment was raised by Mohit Goel who is the CEO of Omaxe Limited.
The business was developed from a need based idea (Kiel, 2014). The primary idea
behind the business is that it converts the pollution particles in the air to an ink. The dust
particles are extremely small and this leads to serious damage to the health of the individuals.

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Kaalink has undergone a long journey where it was seeded at the Fluid Interfaces Group
and presented at the conference in 2013 (Borpuzari, 2018). They began their testing in 2014 and
by 2016, the company had been incorporated and began their real world tasks. Their first
campaign was held in 2016 in Hongkong, after which the company received a huge response in a
few days.
The startup makes use of a technology known as Kaalink in order to capture soot which is
captured from the smoke emitted from the vehicles (Graviky Labs | Crunchbase., 2018). Kaalink
can be described as contraption which is generally fitted to the exhaustion pipe of the car to
capture the pollutants. After this process, various processes are undertaken to convert the soot
collected to a carbon based pigment. This carbon is then used to make different inks.
Business canvas model
As the startup is comparatively very new, it is still in its initialization stage. For this
purpose the business model of the business is not very well developed.
Key Partners
Government
Automobile
companies
Key Activities
Selling ink
products to
consumers
Converting the soot
present in the air to
carbon (Massa &
Value
Proposition
Better utilization
of the waste
emitted by cars
into useful inks
Safety and
Customer
Relationships
Providing ink
products to the
consumers who
are considerable
for the
Customer
Segments
Artists
Street artists

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Tucci, 2013).
Converting this
carbon to in
Conducting various
shows
health
A better
environment to
the people at
large (Sinkovics,
Sinkovics,
&Yamin, 2014)
environment
issues
A better
environment
Automobile
companies
Automobile
purchasersKey Resources
The key resources
of the firm are :
Its human resource
Conversion
technology
Office space
Channels
Online ordering is
presently the
most viable
channel to sell the
products.
Cost Structure
The important cost structures of the given in the
given business model are :
Staff
Taxes
Office
Advertising
Cost of goods (Joyce & Paquin, 2016)
Logistics
Technology
Revenue Streams
Online sales
Sponsorships and funding (Muhtaroglu et al.,
2013)

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Relationship between the 9 blocks of business canvas model
The blocks of the business canvas model describes the main purpose of the business
organization. The business canvas model is a brief summary of the different operations which a
firm indulges in. It provides useful information to the owner of the business in the given areas:
 Value Propositions
 Channels
 Customer Relationships
 Revenue Streams
 Key Activities
 Key Partnerships
 Customer segments
 Key Resources
 Cost Structure
The different components of the business canvas model are deemed to be interrelated
with each other (Hong & Fauvel, 2013). They can be stated to be mutually dependent and any
change made in one particular aspect tends to have an impact on the other business aspect. For
instance a key change in the value proposition of the firm will have certain changes in the cost
structure as well. Let us assume if the firm plans to sell a different colored ink then it will have to
make use of a new technology, the use of which will increase its costs structure. Another
example of this is that if the customer employs more staff then the revenue of the firm might
increase but so will its cost.

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The choice of channel is also related to the cost and revenue structure. For Graviky labs,
the firm sells its product online and that too on request, if it chooses to open a shop, the revenue
might increase for sure, but the resources as well as the cost incurred will also be affected.
Hence, they are dependent on one another and a change in one composition will have an
impact on the other 8 blocks as reflected.
Critical success factors for the business
The Critical success factors can be described as those factors which a business needs to
capture and utilize in order to achieve sustainable growth (Schaltegger, Hansen & Lüdeke-
Freund, 2016). The presence of these factors, will contribute to the welfare of the organization
and will go a long way in determining a potential future.
 Growth strategy- As the business is in the initial stage of it lifetime. A proper growth
strategy would go a long way in determining the success of the organization. The path for
the future of the organization has to be decided and the firm needs to see to it that it has
adequate resources at its disposal so that the growth strategy is achievable. An
organization without sufficient goal strategy will not be able to survive for long in the
business environment.
 Product Diversity- At present Graviky Labs sells ink captured in various forms and sizes
such as markers of sizes 15mm, 30 mm, 2 mm and 50 mm. A 150 ml bottle is also
available. In future, the firm can strengthen its product line whereby it can offer pens and
pencils which will make the firm a bigger success (Cochrane, 2014). However the
diversity of the existing product line will play a huge role in determining the success of
the firm .

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 Funding strategy- The Company had started a funding procedure whereby funds of $40
would give the consumer a small bottle of ink and a souvenir. T had been able to raise
$17000 from that drive. Nevertheless, success is not possible to be measured without
adequate funding plans and the company should see to it that the firm has enough
resources at its disposal in order to ensure that it is able to expand its organization
successfully achieve success. Funding would also enable the firm to expand its product
line.
Potential causes of Downside risk
Downside risk in an organization can be described as the risk which is a result of an
external event taking place in the external environment of the organization and have a huge
impact on the profit making ability of the given firm. The causes for downside risk with
reference to the given organization are given as follows :
Companies adopting a special technology which would not emit smoke
According to Carayannis, Sindakis and Walter (2015), the automobile companies have
been working on a technology which would make the automobiles emit less amount of smoke. If
the amount of pollution generated by the automobiles goes down due to the application of the
smart technology, then the whole point of the business would collapse . Furthermore, if the laws
regarding emission of pollution changes then the business would not be able to get the response
it desires.
Decline in the use of ink with the go-green initiative

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With the go-green initiative, the use of paper and inks has reduced considerably as the
medium used to communicate messages has taken the online medium. Companies these days
avoid printing their brochures and instead prefer to send them online to the potential customers.
Hence, if the use of printed items further decreases, it can lead to a huge loss for the company.
Conclusion
Therefore, from the given analysis it can be witnessed that the organization Graviky Labs
is presently at the initial stage of its life cycle. The company has launched its product but
presently it is available to very few people and that too at a comparatively high cost (Bocken et
al., 2014). The given report analysis the various elements of the business canvas model of the
firm and makes recommended changes with respect to the same.
Recommended Changes to business model
The given changes have been recommended to the business model of the firm:
1. Partnering with various social activists
The main purpose of the startup is to generate ink out of waste. It is using the medium of
a startup to convert the ir pollution to a usable ink technique. Hence, like it collaborated with the
artists in Hong Kong, the company can partner with other social activist in India a Singapore, to
make the movement bigger and to ensure that the business has potential areas to work upon in
future.
2. Start selling their products at nominal prices commercially

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The inks can be promoted using the online advertisement techniques and the firm can
start selling them commercially. This shall make the users more aware about the product and
they would like to buy it. This shall contribute to the revenue of the firm.
3. Adopting retail supply chain mediums
Apart from selling online, the firm can use retail suppliers to push its product down the
supply chain and offer its offering to the customer groups at large.

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References
AIR-INK™. (2018). Graviky Labs: Capturing air pollution and recycling to Inks. Retrieved 28
March 2018, from http://www.graviky.com/air-inktrade.html
Bocken, N. M., Short, S. W., Rana, P., & Evans, S. (2014). A literature and practice review to
develop sustainable business model archetypes. Journal of cleaner production, 65, 42-56.
Borpuzari, P. (2018). Graviky Labs: Converting air pollution to ink. The Economic Times.
Retrieved 28 March 2018, from https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/converting-air-
pollution-to-ink/articleshow/55599925.cms
Carayannis, E. G., Sindakis, S., & Walter, C. (2015). Business model innovation as lever of
organizational sustainability. The Journal of Technology Transfer, 40(1), 85-104.
Cochrane, T. D. (2014). Critical success factors for transforming pedagogy with mobile Web
2.0. British Journal of Educational Technology, 45(1), 65-82.
Graviky Labs | Crunchbase. (2018). Crunchbase. Retrieved 28 March 2018, from
https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/graviky-labs#section-funding-rounds
Hong, Y. C., &Fauvel, C. (2013). Criticisms, variations and experiences with business model
canvas.
Joyce, A., & Paquin, R. L. (2016). The triple layered business model canvas: A tool to design
more sustainable business models. Journal of Cleaner Production, 135, 1474-1486.
Kiel, I. H. (2014). Entrepreneurial marketing.

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Massa, L., & Tucci, C. L. (2013). Business model innovation. The Oxford Handbook of
Innovation Management, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 420-441.
Muhtaroglu, F. C. P., Demir, S., Obali, M., &Girgin, C. (2013, October). Business model canvas
perspective on big data applications. In Big Data, 2013 IEEE International Conference
on (pp. 32-37). IEEE.
Schaltegger, S., Hansen, E. G., &Lüdeke-Freund, F. (2016). Business models for sustainability:
Origins, present research, and future avenues.
Sinkovics, N., Sinkovics, R. R., &Yamin, M. (2014). The role of social value creation in
business model formulation at the bottom of the pyramid–implications for
MNEs?. International Business Review, 23(4), 692-707.