Brainwired: How Sreeshankar Nair is using IoT Wearables to Save India's Dairy Industry
In India, the cow isn't just a livestock animal; it's a critical financial asset for millions of families. But for the average dairy farmer, a sick cow is a silent catastrophe—by the time symptoms appear, it’s often too late. Sreeshankar Nair, Co-founder of Brainwired, is using the power of IoT to give these animals a voice. Through their flagship product Weat, Brainwired is providing a "Fitbit for cows" that detects health issues days before a human can, ensuring that for the Indian dairy farmer, an asset remains an asset, not a liability.
Sreeshankar Nair’s journey is a quintessential story of college-incubated innovation. Alongside co-founder Romeo P. Jerard, Sreeshankar began building Brainwired while still an engineering student at Amal Jyothi College of Engineering in Kerala. Inspired by the struggles of farmers in their own community, the duo focused on the "hard problem" of livestock health. Their resilience paid off on a national stage when they secured funding on Shark Tank India Season 1 from four major sharks. Today, backed by Soonicorn Ventures and Mumbai Angels, Brainwired is scaling its IoT ecosystem across thousands of farms in India.
The Cost of Late Detection
In the dairy industry, 70% of livestock losses occur because diseases are detected too late. A cow might be suffering from a fever or a breeding cycle issue, but by the time it stops eating or shows visible distress, the medical costs have skyrocketed. Brainwired’s Weat system monitors temperature and activity 24/7, providing alerts to the farmer's mobile phone up to 48 hours before physical symptoms appear.
The Problem: The "Silent Tragedy" of Livestock Farming
India is the world's largest milk producer, yet its dairy industry is predominantly unorganized. Farmers manage their herds based on intuition and manual observation. This leads to three massive leaks: late disease detection, missed breeding cycles, and difficulty in securing insurance. Without verifiable health data, insurance companies are hesitant to cover cattle, and banks are reluctant to provide credit, trapping farmers in a cycle of risk.
"We realized that the farmer doesn't have a reliable way to understand the health of their cattle," Sreeshankar explains. "A cow is a 50,000 to 1 Lakh rupee asset. Losing even one animal can push a family into poverty. We wanted to build a technology that makes cattle health predictable and verifiable."
The Solution: Weat — The Connected Cattle Platform
Brainwired’s solution is a comprehensive ecosystem that combines a non-invasive wearable device with a powerful cloud-based analytics platform.
The Weat Data Lifecycle
- IoT Wearable: A durable, solar-powered or long-life battery tag attached to the cow's ear or neck.
- Continuous Monitoring: Real-time tracking of body temperature, movement patterns, and rumination (grazing) levels.
- Cloud Analytics: Data is transmitted to the Brainwired cloud where AI algorithms identify anomalies.
- Predictive Alerts: Farmers receive an SMS or app notification about early-stage fever, mastitis, or the heat cycle.
- Verifiable History: Building a "Digital Passport" for each animal, useful for insurance claims and veterinarian check-ups.
The Shark Tank India Moment: Validation at Scale
Sreeshankar shares the intense experience of pitching on Shark Tank India. For two young founders from Kerala, the platform was more than just a source of capital—it was a national validation of their technology. Securing ₹60 lakhs from Ashneer Grover, Namita Thapar, Aman Gupta, and Peyush Bansal transformed Brainwired from a startup into a household name in the Indian agritech space. This exposure led to a surge in inquiries from both government bodies and large-scale dairy co-operatives.
"The sharks didn't just invest money; they invested their trust in our vision for Bharat," Sreeshankar reflects. "It proved that even a startup from a small town in Kerala could solve a problem that impacts the entire nation. Since then, our goal has been to move from a 'product' to a 'platform' that manages the entire lifecycle of the animal."
Brainwired Impact & Scale
- Shark Tank India Funded: Secured ₹60 lakhs from four industry-leading Sharks.
- 1st Cattle IoT in India: Pioneers in wearable health technology for the Indian dairy sector.
- $305K Raised: Backed by Soonicorn Ventures and Mumbai Angels to scale operations.
- Predictive Power: Detecting diseases up to 48 hours before physical symptoms show.
Lessons in Leadership: Making Opportunities
Sreeshankar is a vocal advocate for the "Founder Mindset" in students. He believes that the best time to start is when you have nothing to lose. He encourages young innovators to not wait for the "perfect opportunity" but to create their own by identifying local problems. For Sreeshankar, the difference between a 9-to-5 job and entrepreneurship is the "thrill of building something that belongs to you and makes a difference to others."
"Opportunities don't always come to you," he advises. "You have to make them. Don't be afraid to fail. If you believe in your idea and you are solving for a genuine pain point, the world will eventually align with you. Just start working on something that makes a difference."
Founder's Lesson: Believe in the Idea
Sreeshankar emphasizes resilience against skepticism. "Many people told us it wouldn't work. They said farmers wouldn't use it. We proved that if the product saves them money, the farmer is the most tech-savvy person you'll find. Don't listen to the noise; listen to the user."
The Future: A Global Livestock Ledger
Sreeshankar’s vision for Brainwired is a world where every piece of livestock has a digital health record. He aims to expand the Weat platform into a marketplace where farmers can access credit, insurance, and medical support based on the verifiable health data of their herd. By turning "unstructured biological assets" into "structured digital data," Brainwired is not just saving cows—it's building the credit score of the Indian farmer. For Sreeshankar, the goal is simple: ensuring that the dairy industry becomes as predictable and profitable as any modern tech enterprise.
Brainwired is proving that the next generation of agritech giants won't just be built in labs—they will be built in the cowsheds of Bharat. By giving the dairy industry a digital pulse, Sreeshankar Nair and his team are ensuring that for the future of Indian agriculture, the truth is finally wearable.
About the Guest
Sreeshankar Nair is the Co-founder of Brainwired. An engineer by training and an agritech pioneer by choice, Sreeshankar is a leading voice in the Indian IoT ecosystem. Under his leadership, Brainwired has emerged as a premier livestock health platform, securing national fame on Shark Tank India and raising significant capital from marquee investors. He is a recognized thought leader in agritech and a vocal advocate for student entrepreneurship and the use of technology to solve Bharat's most pressing challenges.
Brainwired is an agritech IoT startup that provides an end-to-end livestock health monitoring and tracking system. Their flagship product, Weat, uses non-invasive wearables and AI-driven analytics to detect health issues and breeding cycles in cattle in real-time, helping farmers reduce losses, increase milk yield, and access financial services like insurance and credit with verifiable data.