THE OPPORTUNITY
India is undergoing one of the world’s largest infrastructure buildouts. With over $1.3 trillion allocated under the National Infrastructure Pipeline and an estimated $5.8 trillion real estate market by 2047, the construction sector is poised to contribute 15.5% to India’s GDP – up from the current 7.3%.
But, parallel to India’s megaprojects – there is a growing requirement for distributed built spaces across rural, semi-urban, and remote urban corners. Here, the need is not for skyscrapers but scalable, replicable, and efficient micro-infrastructure. Modular, decentralized high volume micro construction – structures under 5,000 sq. ft., typically ground+1 custom-built, and deployed rapidly – is emerging as the future of infrastructure.
Two factors are accelerating this trend:
- Speed: Enterprises and government demand infra delivered in months, not years.
- Footprint: Decentralization demands standardised, scalable and high-quality infrastructure replicated across hundreds of dispersed locations.
India adds over 800 million sq. ft of low-rise buildings each year across sectors. Increasing private-sector demand from healthcare, warehousing, F&B, EV charging infra, and data centres is driving the adoption of modular micro-construction.
On the public side, programs such as PMAY, Rurban Mission, and Ayushman Bharat are accelerating the need for decentralized, small-format infrastructure. Together, these drivers represent a ~$60 billion+ micro-construction opportunity in India over the next five years. Globally, the market is poised to cross $200 billion by 2030.
Traditional on-site construction methods cannot meet this pace of demand.
Despite the demand, India’s micro-construction sector remains under-penetrated due to deep-rooted structural bottlenecks:
- Lack of Standardization: Every project is treated as bespoke, even when many have repeatable typologies (e.g., PHCs, classrooms). This results in inefficiency, higher design costs, and quality inconsistency.
- Fragmented Supply Base: The market is dominated by small, regional contractors with limited ability to scale – resulting in delays, variable quality, and cost overruns. The sector lacks large, reliable players for high-volume, multi-location execution.
- Certification Complexity: Earlier, every site required individual structural and compliance certification, adding months of delay. Now, with pre-certified factory modules, once the central production facility is approved, site-level re-approvals can be avoided – a game-changing shift in modular construction.
- High Project Management Costs: Manual, site-based supervision increases overheads and delays. The absence of digitization further limits efficiency.
Together, these challenges make micro-construction a challenging business for traditional players, creating the perfect wedge for new-age, vertically integrated players.
Modulus Housing with its prefab micro-construction offerings is redefining how infrastructure gets built.
THE UNIQUE APPROACH
Modulus provides industrialized micro-construction solutions for high volume distributed applications. As India’s leading factory-built construction company, it is creating a new category of infrastructure designed for speed, engineered for scale, and built for the low-rise buildings segment.
Modulus is reimagining construction as a product, not just a project. Their solution stack spans – Two Modular Systems:
- Volumetric Modules: Fully finished, container-like units that are plug-and-play—ideal for hospitals, labs, homes, and kiosks.
- Flat-Pack Box-Type Kits: Ship-ready units that can be rapidly assembled on-site using minimal manpower and no heavy machinery.
Both systems are built with pre-certified electrical, plumbing, and insulation and adhere to building codes as per geography and industry-specific requirements.
Factory-Led Execution
Modulus operates on an off-site industrial construction model, manufacturing structures in controlled environments through a decentralized network of partner factories across the country, leading to:
- 4x faster project execution compared to traditional construction
- 98% waste reduction
- 100% quality assurance and standardization
- Drastically lower labour and supervision cost per site
Modulus’ solution stack is rooted in their R&D, tech & process IP:
- Patented Foldable Building design: A first-of-its-kind in India, enabling ultra-fast deployment and transportability.
- Proprietary Concrete Mix: Developed in-house with IIT Madras, this proprietary blend reduces curing time from 3 days to 2 hours – massively improving site throughput and lowering cost.
- Sandwich Panels: Built-in insulation, structural, electrical, plumbing elements and windows/doors.
- PEB (Pre-Engineered Buildings): Advanced steel design – uses only 1.5-1.8 kg steel/sq.ft. with high thermal insulation and rapid installation times.
- LGSF (Light Gauge Steel Framing): Modulus volumetric unit using LGSF reduces the number of components significantly.
With a pan-India partner network (300+ contractors), Modulus leverages bulk procurement, standardized BOM, and centralized QA/QC, delivering up to 30% lower material costs compared to fragmented players.
Use-Cases Across Industries – The Infra Shift is Real
With ready blueprints for each target vertical – Modulus tailors its products to diverse needs while maintaining platform standardization.
- Healthcare: India’s public health infrastructure is being rebuilt from the grassroots. The Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission alone plans over 150,000 Health & Wellness Centers (HWCs) across rural and semi-urban India. There’s also demand for diagnostic labs, medical device factories, and pharmacies closer to patients.
Why micro construction? Rapid rollout, hygiene certification, and scale across geographies.
- Food & Beverage / Hospitality: India is witnessing a boom in cloud kitchens, QSRs, and micro-factories, particularly in Tier 2/3 cities. With the rise of D2C food brands, there’s a need for food-safe, rapid-to-launch spaces.
Why micro construction? FSSAI/GMP-ready designs, fast deployment, and scalable replication across markets.
- EV Charging Infrastructure: India needs 1 million+ EV charging stations by 2030. These include highway hubs, city nodes, and commercial depots – each requiring integrated infra (chargers, kiosks, restrooms).
Why micro construction? Quick, modular EV stations that combine utility, retail, and renewable energy elements.
- Defense & Disaster Response: Defense applications – from troop housing and field hospitals to command centres- require climate-resilient infra that can be mobilized in 30–45 days.
Why micro construction? Modular systems for rapid deployment in remote/high-altitude zones, aligned with Make in India.
- Edge Data Centers: With 5G and AI adoption, India needs 100,000+ edge data nodes for real-time processing in Tier 2/3 towns. Compact, localized computing hubs are key to this evolution.
Why micro construction? Thermally insulated, plug-and-play data shells with minimal on-site integration needs.
THE FOUNDING TEAM AND WAY AHEAD
The founders of Modulus Housing – Shreeram Ravichandran (CEO) and P. Gobinath (COO) are both civil engineers from IIT Madras who understand construction from first principles and have deep on-ground experience in both design and deployment. Together, they bring a mix of engineering, startup hustle, and systems thinking.
Their execution mindset and ability to operate in the toughest geographies (Nagaland, Bihar, Meghalaya, Africa) have been instrumental in Modulus’ bootstrapped journey from idea to ₹200+ Cr in cumulative project value. Till date, Modulus has delivered 1,500+ modular buildings across 21 Indian states and parts of Africa, with key projects including:
- 70-bed COVID-ready hospitals during the pandemic
- Multiple PHCs, Agri-infra, and classrooms
Our investment will help Modulus to strengthen their core team, which will further support them to deepen their tech stack, expand the partner network, and unlock new sectoral GTM pathways across B2B and B2G segments.
At Kalaari, we believe the next phase of India’s massive infra journey will be built on speed, scale, and sustainability. Modulus Housing is pioneering a new category – industrialized micro construction for the 21st century.
We’re thrilled to partner with Modulus in this transformative journey to democratize infrastructure for Bharat and beyond.
“We started Modulus with a simple vision to make infrastructure fast, affordable, and accessible for everyone. India’s growth story demands a new way of building – one that combines engineering precision with manufacturing efficiency. With this funding, we aim to scale Modulus into a technology-first infrastructure platform that can serve not just India, but also markets globally.” – Shreeram Ravichandran, Co-founder & CEO, Modulus Housing
“Modulus is solving a key problem in the infrastructure sector – where demand is decentralized, recurring, and urgent while unmet in quality expectations. Their factory-first approach brings scalability and predictability to one of the most fragmented industries. The founding team of Shreeram and Gobi have done phenomenal work in bootstrapping the company and validating the market. We believe Modulus has the potential to become a category leader in industrialized micro-construction and are excited to work with the team in their next phase of growth.” – Sampath P, Partner, Kalaari Capital
Kalaari Capital is an early-stage, technology-focused venture capital firm based out of Bengaluru, India. Since 2006, Kalaari has empowered visionary entrepreneurs building unique solutions that reshape the way Indians live, work, consume and transact. The firm’s ethos is to partner early with founders and work with them to navigate the inevitable challenges of fostering ideas into successful businesses. At its core, Kalaari believes in building long-term relationships based on trust, transparency, authenticity, and respect.
If you are a founder building an early-stage company, write to us at pitch@kalaari.com
