Pilot Projects of RFID Products Underway

After recieving GVFL funding, Rapidradio - an Ahmedabad-based company - has been able to plan for the development of Ultra High Frequency (UHF) 865-867 MHz and Active Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) 433 MHz. This is because of the special software required for testing these products.

Its product portfolio includes RFID Readers, RFID Antennas, RFID Transponders, HF Evaluation Kit, and Customized Products.

The products in the HF Technology space have a range of 40-50 centimeters, whereas the products in the UHF have a range of 2-3 meters. Both have passive tags, they have to be energized. In the Active RFID technology, the range goes up to 20 to 50 meters, and the tags also have a battery.


The targeted applications are: access control, inventory tracking, asset management, healthcare management, warehouse management, supply chain management, campus management system, library management system, vehicle tracking, time and attendance applications, and security and monitoring.

RapidRadio products are available in Gujarat as of now. Their customers include Nirma University Library, and C-DAC Gandhinagar.

Started off in Jan 2006, and spun off from Nirma labs April 2006, the company was initially funded by Nirmalabs. It received funding by GVFL in Feb. 2006 to the tune of Rs.80 lakh. A team of 5 at present, they plan to increase their headcount.

The company's initiative with Soft link Asia is for jointly deploying library solutions in the library industry, where the terms are under negotiation. Softlink Asia is the provider of library software, with over 200 implementations in India.

"We are working on making our hardware compatible with their system. Softlink is about to come out with new software called Liberty 3, and we hope to incorporate our RFID tags in this system," said Dhaval Kotecha, CEO of RapidRadio Solutions.

The company is looking out to form partnerships with solution providers and other software companies who are in the stage of developing their software. RapidRadio aims to install its products into their systems.

In about a year's time, the company plans to foray to other countries.