By leveraging the power of the Internet, Pechora Technologies’ monitoring and surveillance solution reaches out to the masses with zero software costs, ease of use, and innate compatibility with common hardware and systems found in the most basic home and office setups.

Currently called HomeCamera, Pechora’s software enables non-technical Internet users worldwide to easily and affordably watch over their children, their pets, their property, small businesses and the elderly, using the cheap off-the-shelf webcams that they already own.

“We are not in the business of selling people hardware and integration,” said Mr Varun Arora, the company’s Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer. “The Software as a Service model that we follow means our customers bring their own hardware to the party.” The hardware could be inexpensive everyday webcams such as those integrated into notebooks as well as any USB webcam currently in the market.

Mr Varun Arora (left) with Mr Li Yi: HomeCamera won the IEC InfoVision Award at the Broadband World Forum in Paris in September 2009.

“Using our easy and straight-forward to use software, our customers transform their webcams into monitoring devices, capable of on-demand image and video access, motion detection access with send-to-mobile or send-to-email, scheduled recording services,” he explained. “This enables the user to have an image or a video recorded from his or her camera every minute and stored ‘in the cloud’ for anytime anywhere access, even when you're overseas.”

The service has received good international recognition, winning the IEC InfoVision Award at the Broadband World Forum in Paris in September 2009. Said Mr Arora, “This was a huge achievement for a small startup - we were the only recipient from all of Southeast Asia, and winners in other categories were mega-corporations like Nokia Siemens Networks, Ericsson, Huawei, Motorola, and others”. The service has also been praised and recommended by international media, including The San Francisco Chronicle, The New Zealand Herald, PC World, and our very own Digital Life.

Pechora follows a “freemium” business model, where the basic service - including motion detection, webcam sharing, and image recording - is available to all subscribers at no cost, while features like streaming video and SMS alerts are charged separately.

The initial technology for HomeCamera was licensed from Singapore telco M1’s subsidiary, Wireless Intellect Labs, where Mr Arora and Pechora Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer Mr Li Yi both worked before deciding to come out on their own
in 2008.

“We were passionate about delivering on the promise of HomeCamera and asked M1 to give us a shot at building the business,” said Mr Arora. “Until then, neither Li Yi nor I thought of ourselves as entrepreneurs. Now, with all the sweat, blood, and hard work that we've put in together, we can't imagine ourselves not being entrepreneurs.”

To assist them in their research and development efforts, Pechora received a grant from SPRING Singapore under the Technology Enterprise Commercialisation Scheme (Proof of Value) category.

“The TECS award was a huge factor in getting us to where we are, helping establish our credibility, giving our investors confidence in the company,” said Mr Arora. “In addition, SPRING SEEDS (Start-up Enterprise Development Scheme) has recently confirmed their participation in our Seed funding round, after engaging with us to thoroughly understand our business.”

Pechora is currently working on a “brand new, scalable, and skinnable site” that is intended to serve as a platform for developers to contribute enhancements for HomeCamera.

“Community-contributed enhancements could be on a paid or kudos basis, and is part of our commitment under TECS where we intend to open-source a part of HomeCamera,” said Mr Arora. “The ‘skinnability’ of the site will also help us integrate into ISPs and mobile operators more easily, thus helping the business to add on service provider partners quickly.”

With both the code and web site almost ready, Pechora intends to go commercial within the next two to three months, and the company is already in advanced conversations with Internet service providers like Rogers and O2, and the GSM Association.

“All told, the future looks bright, and my team and I look forward to building this into a truly global and scalable company, and serving in our own little way as a beacon of innovation from Singapore,” said Mr Arora.

Pechora achieved its first significant sign of worldwide recognition last year. HomeCamera won the IEC InfoVision Award at the Broadband World Forum held in Paris in September 2009, recognising HomeCamera as the Global Number One Service of 2009.