Sajid Athikkay grew up in the state of Kerala in southern India. After completing his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, he started working for a company in the gas and oil industry. He was with the company for almost six years before making a life-changing decision.
“I wanted to make a U-turn and work more toward sustainability.”
Very interesting
He started looking for university programmes and Sweden and Linköping University soon came up as a very interesting option. No sooner said than done – in 2017 he moved several thousand kilometres north to study the master’s programme Sustainability Engineering and Management at LiU.
“I had a high-paid job, so I needed to convince my family that I really wanted to make this move and change,” he says, smiling.
Very good programme
Despite a tough transition, from 30 degrees heat to darkness and cold, Sajid Athikkay liked life in Östergötland and at LiU.
“It’s a very good programme and I can understand why it’s top ranked. I wanted a mix of management and courses in energy sustainability – and I got that here.”
The same programme at LiU had also attracted Dominic Francis, a fellow Kerala native. The two had never met before but now started doing several projects on the programme together where they had the opportunity to visit different companies in the manufacturing industry. They did their degree project at BTT Plåt in Kisa.
“They were really into sustainability, and we helped them with a survey of how we could improve their energy efficiency. Unfortunately, we got a bit stuck and couldn’t find anything on the market that suited their needs and was financially viable.”
While working on the degree project, Sajid and Dominic got an idea. “If there’s no solution in the market, why don’t we build something ourselves?”
With the support and help from LiU innovation, they developed a prototype and later they got a place on an entrepreneurial programme with the business incubator LEAD. This was the beginning of the journey for the company Dazoq, and the duo (Dominic has recently moved back to India and is no longer active in the company) decided to stay in Östergötland.
“Entrepreneurship and sustainability are my two great passions in life, and having the opportunity to combine them was enough to give it a try. Since then, many companies in the immediate vicinity have been very welcoming. We collaborated with several companies from the outset and felt that Linköping is the best place for us to be,” says Sajid Athikkay.
Save energy
The company was registered in 2020 and launched its first product in the summer of 2022. It basically involves wireless sensors that are placed directly on machines to measure energy consumption in real time. Around the clock, the meters read data that, via a web-based platform, helps industries track and save energy. The large amount of data enables customers to get a clear picture of how much energy each machine uses and how to change or reduce energy consumption.
Dazoq spent a lot of time analysing the market prior to launch – and they can see that many manufacturing companies are looking for improvements to lower their costs and become more sustainable. According to Sajid, after wages and raw materials, energy bills are the biggest expense for industries.
“There’s a big mismatch here, we’ve seen that over 60 percent of industries aren’t satisfied with their energy management. We help our customers save at least 15–20 percent on their invoices,” says Sajid Athikkkay.
Today, Dazoq has implemented its sensors with 50 paying customers from different sectors of the manufacturing industry. The goal for the future is clear – to grow beyond Sweden’s borders.
“We’ve had a great response so far and now we hope to expand to more countries in Europe. One thing that makes it easier is that we usually don’t have to visit the companies. We configure the software in the wireless sensors before we send them, and they’re very easy for the customer to install on site,” says Sajid Athikkay.
