Building the empire: 6 factories, $10 million from Reliance-Temasek, and the SMF battery gamble

“15 years of building — dealing with government agencies, approvals, architects, and contractors. All certified under OHSAS-18001. Looking back, I realize how much of my prime time went into construction. But these factories turned Su-Kam into a manufacturing powerhouse.”

01 The corporate HQ — “Imagine a city powered by…”

After 2000, Su-Kam grew explosively. I built a world-class corporate office on a 1,000 sq metre plot in Gurgaon. It took 2.5 years to construct — seating for 150+ people, a proper canteen for 100, and interiors I personally designed and oversaw. Looking back, I now realize how much prime time I spent on construction. But at the time, I wanted every detail to be perfect.

Su-Kam Corporate Headquarters, Gurgaon — “Imagine A City Powered By The Sun.” The vision that drove everything.

Inside the Su-Kam corporate office — a world-class workspace housing 150+ people.

02 $10 million from Reliance-Temasek (2005)

In 2005, the Reliance Energy India Power Fund — a Reliance-ADAG and Temasek Holdings joint venture — acquired a 20% equity stake in Su-Kam for ₹45 crore. This was unheard of in the Indian inverter industry. The investment culture for manufacturing companies was just starting — investors had been burned by the dot-com bubble and were now realizing that manufacturing companies with brands could be the future.

The investors sent me to the US to explore an acquisition. I saw a US company functioning for the first time and realized we were good in certain areas but needed to improve in others. The deal didn’t mature, but the learning was tremendous — I brought back sample documents, processes, and standards that transformed how Su-Kam operated, especially in R&D.

03 Building 6 factories from scratch

With the Reliance-Temasek investment fueling expansion, I built factory after factory:

Su-Kam factory in Baddi, Himachal Pradesh.

The Katha factory — Su-Kam’s state-of-the-art SMF battery plant.

15 years of building — dealing with government agencies, approvals, architects, and contractors. All certified under OHSAS-18001 for occupational health and safety. These factories turned Su-Kam into a manufacturing powerhouse.

The Katha SMF battery factory inauguration — with CM Himachal Pradesh Mr. Dhumal. One of the best manufacturing facilities in India at the time.

Transformer manufacturing at Su-Kam — building the power infrastructure that went into every inverter and UPS.

04 The SMF battery gamble — a dream that taught a brutal lesson

The SMF (Sealed Maintenance Free) battery factory was my dream project. I built it on 6 acres in Katha with the investment from Reliance-Temasek. The idea was revolutionary: everyone in India was using lead-acid batteries that needed regular water refilling and released unhealthy lead fumes. I wanted to bring sealed, maintenance-free batteries to the Indian inverter market.

Inside the SMF battery factory — lead casting, plate formation, and assembly lines.

But in India, the minimum warranty was 2 years and above. The SMF batteries we manufactured couldn’t survive the deep-cycle usage patterns of Indian homes — long power cuts, daily cycling, extreme temperatures. The battery people I hired didn’t understand the difference between UPS backup (15–30 minutes) and inverter backup (4–8 hours).

A state-of-the-art factory. A dream vision. But the fundamental assumption was wrong. This was one of my most expensive lessons.

05 Su-Kam at its peak