"WHAT OTHERS SELL IN FOUR BOXES WE BUILT IN ONE"

Years of custom field work are shaping a product line with its own cloud, its own hardware, and a market that is now beginning to recognise its value.

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Ionicks did not begin as a startup with a pitch deck or a classroom idea. It began as a service shop handling custom automation jobs for clients. In those early years, everything inside the panels ran on programmable logic controllers (PLCs). While delivering those jobs, B. Thangathurai continued searching for better methods to build control systems. That search gradually pushed the work from PLCs to embedded systems, and once that shift occurred, the path to IoT opened.

Instead of using bulky controllers, the team moved to MCUs. Instead of renting space on AWS or Google, they built their own cloud using open source tools. Everything from the device to the network to the server runs on systems under their control. Nothing sits in a black box.

The name Ionicks originates from the word ‘ion,’ a charged particle that triggers reactions. For the team, that ion represents how a small signal can initiate a much larger process, similar to the devices they aim to place inside machines and networks.

Today, they offer their own products in the market, providing customers with comprehensive electrical solutions.

When asked about their innovation, Thangathurai explains, “For over-voltage protection, there is a separate device. For power-factor correction, there is another device. For maximum demand control, there is another device. For remote switching, people typically purchase a smart switch as a standalone unit. We have built a single product that performs all of this in a single unit. It has a builtin RTC. Most market switches do not come with an RTC. Because it has its own RTC, even without WiFi or internet the schedule runs from the MCU itself.”