Suman Paudel, a former researcher at Nepal Academy of Science and Technology, began working on the idea of egg-incubation after learning that Nepal’s poultry industry was sending out around Rs 400 million a year to import these egg-incubating (hatching) machines.

He assembled a small team of mechanical and electrical engineers to give shape to his project and developed three prototypes at a modest cost of Rs 200,000. And so began the story of Pothi Incubator in Tikapur, Kailali.

“Our first machines had a 65 percent success rate, which was a decent result,” says Paudel, the CEO of Pothi Incubator. “We then tweaked and made further changes to the machines for market production.”

Paudel says when the first incubators were introduced, many poultry farmers looked askance as they were not used to seeing Nepal-made machines. It took some time for the farmers to accept these domestically made egg-hatching machines. 

“We have sold nearly 100 machines so far,” says Paudel. 

Pothi Incubator hit its stride after moving to Butwal. Given that most poultry farms are based in eastern part of the country, Paudel says the company had to relocate.

“Operating from Tikapur, it was difficult to transport egg incubators because of our poor highways,” he says.

Besides building its own hatching machines, Pothi Incubator also offers technical assistance to poultry farmers, like repairing and increasing the efficiency of their machines built by third parties.  

The startup has helped the owner of an ostrich farm in Bhairahawa modify his US-built egg incubator so that it can hatch up to 1,800 eggs at once. Besides, it also conducts real-time monitoring of machines used by the clients using digital technology.

“We can monitor the machines remotely using a mobile app to see if the machines are functioning optimally,” Paudel says. “We developed this system as our clients are based far away from our office.”

The company’s contribution to the country’s poultry sector has not gone unnoticed. Its egg-hatching machine was awarded first prize under the ‘Made in Nepal’ category by Idea Studio, a platform for sharing business ideas.

Pothi Incubator is currently producing four ranges of egg hatching machines. Paudel says a fully automated egg incubator is also in development with the support of the National Innovation Center.

“We now want the government to improve our market access,” Paudel says.

Pothi Incubator

Establish year: 2020
Founder: Suman Paudel
Service location: All over Nepal
Price of the product: 176 eggs: Rs 40,000; 500 eggs: Rs 70,000; 700 eggs: Rs 80,000; 1056 eggs: 105,000 (normal), 120,000 (advanced)
Contact: 9848558143
Social media link here.