NSRCEL Startup: Hexpressions

About us:

Hexpressions started a year ago as a social impact venture to create disruptive change in the society through innovative design ideas. We believe that disruptive design ideas can bring significant revolution in the society. We are a team of designers and when we got to know about the scheme of “Housing for all” by 2022 announced by honorable prime minister of India, and we felt to do something about it. We thought being Architects and Designers we understand the market potential, opportunities and threats too. Our past work experience will also help us to evaluate the market very well in terms of design requirements and opportunities. So it is not only a project but our duty towards society to make housing affordable and sustainable for not only communities but also for planet. We want to scale this startup globally where we aim to eradicate homelessness and housing affordability crisis.

Team’s unique capabilities:

Being Architects and Designers we understand the market potential, opportunities and threats too. Our past work experience will also help us to evaluate the market very well in terms of design requirements and opportunities. It is not only a project but our duty towards society to make housing affordable and sustainable for not only communities but also for the planet.

Ecosystem ( Indian & Global )

Globally over 1 billion people are suffering from housing affordability crisis and this number would go up to 1.6 billion by 2025. In india the Potential market is 19 Million households and our government is trying to address this huge demand. If we want to achieve this huge target to provide a permanent shelter we have to move to fast and sustainable construction methods and technologies.
In the global ecosystem, Europe alone has a potential market of affordable housing which is 219 million households today. Globally it is 330 million and it is expected to go up to 440 million households by 2025.
In Indian context, the year 2019-20 has been declared as “Construction Technology year” by India Government and We strongly believe that a permanent shelter helps the community to live a dignified life.

Problem Statement:

Housing affordability crisis is one of the biggest challenges the world is facing today. Access to decent, ‘Affordable housing’ is fundamental to the health and well-being of people and the smooth functioning of economies. But most cities struggle with the dual challenges of housing their poorest citizens and providing housing at a reasonable cost for low and middle-income populations. The huge affordable housing demand and inadequate supply have created a big void in the market.
Our honorable prime minister had launched the ambitious scheme of “Housing for all” by 2022. One part of the scheme is PMAY ( Rural ) and it aims to provide 1 crore households by 2022. We are aligning our aim with this ambitious scheme where we want to provide ready to assemble green homes to the rural communities. We can really do that as our solution is sustainable, modular, super fast and affordable. The financial subsidy program form the government will also help us penetrating the rural market. One of the biggest benchmarks of the rural economic development is to own your pukka house.

Solution:

Hexpressions is a product service innovation providing affordable, fast, modular and sustainable homes to all sections of the society with a new age construction material called “Composite Paper Honeycomb Panel”. Composite Paper Honeycomb Panel has two components – an inner core (paper honeycomb made with recycled paper) and outer face material (any local materials like cement board, wood, stone etc.). This new age wonder material has the capacity to replace the traditional construction materials and reduces the carbon footprint on the planet. The project largely focuses on environmental issues (paper waste) and societal issues (housing affordability & social integration) addressing housing affordability crisis and social exclusion from our society. Aim of the project is to support underserved communities with a permanent shelter. The solution empowers people by providing training and skill development to build their own homes and live a dignified life. Composite Paper Honeycomb Panel is an evolutionary product that replaces non eco-friendly materials like (wood, PUF, Rock Wool Mineral wool, EPS) in their respective applications while preserving the key virtues of their usage in the concerned applications. Composite Paper Honeycomb Panel is an eco-friendly, versatile, flexible and lightweight material that has excellent compatibility with other materials and an excellent strength-to-weight ratio. It combines with plywood, steel, plastics, FRP and many other materials as its sandwich faces to form some of the strongest composite panels for its weight and dimensions. It is also more economical than most materials, thereby making it an ideal choice. As a product made from recycled paper and eco- friendly glue, it is a boon to the earth as a 100% bio-degradable, non-polluting, eco- friendly material. Large-scale usage of paper honeycomb can drastically boost the aim of preserving nature.

Target Customers and Beneficiaries:

It’s a B2G/ B2B2C model focusing on Governments, NGO’s & philanthropic groups. Our paying customers will be Intermediaries ( Developers, Architects, NGO’s, philanthropic organisations) who are dealing in affordable housing and community development projects. But our end consumers will be underserved communities, refugees, the homeless and people who can’t afford a home. Aim of the project is to support underserved communities with a permanent shelter. Our solution is super fast and sustainable which will give users not only a place to live but also empowers people by providing training and skill development to build their own homes and live a dignified life. We will involve communities to learn and assemble their own homes.

Revenue will be generated by:
1. Collaborating with intermediaries through various affordable & sustainable housing projects.
2. Licensing the green construction technique.
3. Renting modular houses as customized service.

Revenue growth and profit margins:
Our revenue growth of 120% for the past 3 months and our profit margin is 40% per unit sale.

Uniqueness:

Paper Honeycomb core is widely used in the packaging, furniture industry. Its properties like shock absorption, lightweight, eco-friendly, stackability, termite-proof makes it a truly unique product. Hexpressions is using the advantage of its properties and giving it a new dimension of a unique building material as “ Composite paper honeycomb panels”. This material has the highest weight to strength as compare to other traditional building materials. These are fast, modular, affordable, eco-friendly and customised panels, designed to snug-fit products, providing complete protection from outside weathering conditions. The best part of the material is that its face material can be changed as per the local context. The panels can be made with wood, cement board, fibreboard, stone etc. without any additional efforts to suits the microclimatic conditions. The material withstands all conditions of wind, rain, fire, security and safety. It is the only drywall system in the market which is green, sustainable and super fast.

Hexpressions COVID Isolation Bed Plan

Details of the product

Hexpressions is working on product-service innovation providing eco-friendly, fast, modular, and ready to assemble Isolation cabin for COVID-19 patients by using only 2 paper honeycomb boards and a cardboard enclosure. Paper honeycomb board and cardboard used, is water-resistant and are also being coated with disinfectant which makes it safe for hospital usage. The benefits of using paper honeycomb over any other materials are, highest weight to strength ratio (10x), lightweight, super-fast, modular, soundproof, cost-effective.

How does the product solve the problem.

COVID-19 is a global crisis, with which the infected number of people are increasing by every passing day. From the countries having the highest economy to the developing countries, from urban areas to rural villages, the spread of the deadly virus outbreak is huge and devastating. Many countries are sGll under lockdown, people are being quaranGned and kept under isolaGon so as to prevent the growth of this pandemic.

Studying and learning about this situation which is keeping more and more people under isolation and has increased the demand for isolation wards. To narrow down the supply-demand gap we have come up with an innovative isolation cabin made out of paper board, which is not only eco-friendly but also durable (can also take up to 300kgs of weight).

Pricing and Unit economics (cost of each unit and margin)

INR 3500 (excluding 18% GST and transportation)

Please visit http://hexpressions.org/ for more details..