The Story of Kunwer Sachdev
A statistics graduate with no MBA and no money who sold pens, built India’s largest inverter and solar company, organised an entire unorganised industry, filed a record number of patents — lost it all, and started again in the age of AI. Told in twelve chapters.
6
factories built
90+
countries
106
technology filings
₹1,200cr
peak revenue
Told in full, in his own words, at kunwersachdev.com.
Who is Kunwer Sachdev?
Kunwer Sachdev founded Su-Kam Power Systems in 1988, grew it into India’s pioneering power-backup and solar brand, and filed 106 technology patents across inverters, solar PCUs, batteries and power electronics. He invented the plastic-body inverter — India Today’s Innovation of the Decade in 2003 — and built one of India’s first institutional megawatt rooftop solar plants at Punjab Engineering College. Read the 106 patents, start with the origin story, or check independent verification.
Twelve chapters
Read it as one journey — or jump to the chapter you want.
Before the inverters, there was cable
The dish-antenna years — a young man, a soldering bench, and a hunger he couldn’t explain.
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The first inverter, and the fire
A technician’s insult, the exploding MOSFETs, the R&D I built from nothing — and the Government of India’s stamp on it.
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The Inventions — the products that changed the market
A shock on a rainy day, the CHIC, the Fairy Queen, the Home UPS, the world’s first touch-screen inverter — the firsts a whole industry copied.
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How losing one case made me India’s biggest patent filer
106 technology filings — 77 at Su-Kam, 25 at Su-Vastika, 4 personal AI filings, 24 granted by the IPO. The highest, and the only fully verifiable, single-founder patent record in India’s power-backup and solar industry.
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Going solar — and India’s first 1 MW grid-feed plant
I built a separate team just for solar projects — and with it installed India’s first 1 MW grid-feed plant, then took solar to the border, the villages, and two villages lit with Dr APJ Abdul Kalam.
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World-class factories, a world-class office — and my costliest mistake
A $10M Reliance–Temasek vote of confidence, six factories and a world-class HQ built by hand — and the battery dream that nearly cost me everything.
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The brand nobody could copy
No giant budget — just the sharpest ideas: branded buses and Kashmiri Shikaras, a ₹5-crore Mercedes giveaway, umbrellas on street carts, and a fleet of moving billboards.
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Going to market — Sales ka Baazigar, TV, and YouTube
A sales reality show that found talent in small towns, bold TV commercials, YouTube a full decade before my rivals, and the dais beside Philip Kotler.
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900 distributors, 50,000 dealers — a Su-Kam in every town
I built distribution from door-to-door selling into 900 distributors and 50,000 dealers, 1,000+ dealer meets from Kashmir to Kanyakumari — and put Su-Kam on Wal-Mart’s shelves.
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The brand that travelled — into 90 countries
The first Indian inverter company to earn the CE mark — 90+ countries, 185,000+ installed units, and a founder who went where others wouldn’t.
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The peak, and the day Su-Kam died
₹1,200 crore, 5,000 people, a name that stuck — and then insolvency took it all in a single day.
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The rebuild, and the next frontier
No money, cases on every side — and Khushboo who made the beginning. The brutal restart with Su-Vastika, the partner who finally believed, and a new life in AI and writing.
Read chapter →The full series, in my own words
The long-form companion series on kunwersachdev.com — each part told in full, in Kunwer's own voice.
In the press
Three decades in the national press — Forbes, India Today, Times of India, Economic Times and more.
The journey continues
Follow my work in AI, the startups I’m backing, and the founders I’m mentoring.
Founder, Su-Kam · Co-founder & Mentor, Su-Vastika · Building kunwwer.ai