KOCHI: An IT company based in Kochi is aiming to solve the housing issues in the US! Ever heard of such a big branching out? That is what makes Vinod Tharakan, CMD of ClaySys, stand apart in the entrepreneurial world. In what can be said as a first-of-its-kind initiative, the firm will be tapping into the housing market in the US by exporting pre-fabricated houses. Another innovative initiative the firm, which provides technology and automation support to 16% of the Credit Unions in the US, has implemented is related to family care preventive medicine.
Vinod tells TNIE, “All of our initiatives stemmed from the company’s view that a financially, mentally and physically well person will be more beneficial to the institution. As for the pre-fabricated houses, the idea stemmed from the request made by the company’s staff in the US. They heard about the scheme in Kerala wherein the employees were provided housing. We had done that here to plug employee attrition.”
He says, “We decided to turn builders for this. It was understood that if we became a builder, the actual cost of an apartment or villa would be half that of the market. In 2012, when the project was launched, an average three-bedroom apartment was selling at Rs 50 lakh in Kakkanad. But the construction cost was only Rs 25 lakh. So, it was agreed upon to provide 30% of every building to our staff as an at-cost benefit, while 70% went to the market. Profit from the market subsidises the total cost. And it still is a profitable business!”
So, coming back to the pre-fabricated houses, Vinod says, “After the US staff sent in the SOS regarding housing problems, which ate away 50 per cent of their paycheck, we thought of pre-fabricated houses. The cost of a basic house in Cincinnati in the US comes around $250 per sq ft while it is more than $400 in the West and East Coast. However, the same comes at $35 per sq ft in India.” The reason is that the labour is cheaper in India compared to the US, he adds.
So, Vinod decided to set up a factory in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, to make pre-fabricated houses using fibreglass material. “A 3,000 sq ft pre-fabricated house would only cost $6,000 per container. So 90% of a house will be shipped out from Vallarpadam Terminal in Kochi in three containers and the cost will come to around $18,000. This is at an advanced stage and will be a big business. Because housing is a major crisis in the US. They are short of millions of homes. They don’t have labour since the US is in full employment and due to this the prices are sky-rocketing,” he says.
Another innovative initiative that Vinod has implemented in his company is an in-house family care clinic called BitCure. Vinod is planning to take the BitCure facility out to the public in Kochi and has acquired a space at Irumbanam for the purpose.
“The initiative will be like the OTT platform model. This will be the first family medicine practice on a monthly subscription model like Netflix and will be concentrating on preventive care rather than disease management. The idea stemmed from taking care of the physical well-being of the staff and their family,” he says. The facility will be made available to the public in 2025.
“The monthly subscription will cover the clinical care while the labs, imaging and procedure will be at a cost,” he adds.