Blend of Old and New: Tech Savvy Village Lad Behind ReNote AI

Nellore: In a quiet village deep inside SPSR Nellore district, Suman Balabommu grew up as an ordinary kid in humble surroundings. While other children played in the agricultural fields, young Suman dreamt big. He eventually took to blending tradition with technology.

Little did anyone know that this curious mind from an interior hamlet would go on to create ReNote AI, a groundbreaking smart notebook that would revolutionize the way students and professionals capture, organise and interact with others through their handwritten notes.

Suman was born and raised in Ravuru village, nestled in Indukurpet mandal. He completed his schooling at MKR High School in Indukurpet.

“I used to walk 5km every day through paddy fields to my school,” Suman recalls. He pursued his Intermediate studies in a junior college in Nellore and completed MBA at Sri Venkateswara University in Tirupati. “It was difficult to manage studies—writing endless notes, losing them and not having access to organised information,” he recalls.

In the backdrop of new technology, this thought sparked a vision in him: What if handwritten notes could be digitized instantly and brought to life using AI?

That idea led to the creation of ReNote AI, a revolutionary smart notebook paired with an AI-powered mobile app. With this, students can write by hand. The app scans, organises, and even allows users to "talk" to their notes using voice commands. The AI chatbot can answer questions from handwritten content, translate languages, generate reminders, emails and even convert sketches into digital illustrations.

But ReNote AI isn’t just about convenience—it’s also about conservation. The notebook is smart, reusable, waterproof, and non-tearable—designed to be used up to 100 times.

By extension, this feature helps save millions of litres of water, thousands of trees, and significant amounts of electricity that go into the manufacturing of traditional notebooks. It’s a product at the intersection of sustainability and innovation—a vision for a greener future.

More than just a note-taking tool, ReNote AI is a bridge between analog creativity and digital intelligence—something students and professionals alike have been searching for.

The road to success wasn’t smooth. Between 2017 and early 2020, Suman invested nearly Rs 50 lakh into product development. But when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, everything came to a halt. With no other option, he returned to his village.

Yet, adversity has a way of setting the stage for breakthroughs. In 2022, following India’s ban on Chinese apps, Google and the central government jointly launched an initiative to support homegrown alternatives.

ReNote AI, previously known as JustCopy, was selected among the top 100 potential mobile applications in India. Google extended not just training, but also trust.

With encouragement from his brother-in-law, who is an environmental engineer graduated from IIT Kharagpur, and guidance of mentors from Google, Suman rebuilt his vision. The Telangana government offered him office space at T-Hub, Hyderabad—a turning point that accelerated the startup’s growth.

By October 2024, ReNote AI stood tall at the GITEX Global Expo in Dubai, handpicked as one of just 12 Indian innovations showcased internationally.

The Dubai education department decided to partner with Suman’s startup, believing that encouraging paper-based learning is essential, as digital products are negatively affecting handwriting—which, in turn, leads to a loss of creativity, memory power, and having various cognitive impacts on students.

Then came another milestone: ReNote AI was selected to represent Indian innovation at the Osaka World Expo 2025 in Japan. There, it was recognized as one of the top three innovations. One Japanese visitor, a regular at every Expo since 1970, called ReNote AI “the most meaningful product” he had seen in decades.

The Indian Embassy in Tokyo echoed this sentiment, featuring the product on its official platforms. Reportedly, the Japanese government has offered office space and support in Tokyo to further Suman's mission.

What sets Suman apart isn’t just his technical prowess, but his deep-rooted sense of purpose: to make education smarter, more inclusive and accessible—especially for rural students who, like his younger self, are brimming with potential but lacking tools to transform their visions to reality.

Despite failing eight times during development, Suman never gave up. “Failures taught me how not to build it. But my mission kept me going,” he says with a smile.

Now a proud husband and father of two school-going children, Suman is preparing to launch his next innovation—a Smart Pen and Smart OMR Evaluation APPs —by August 2025.

His journey from chalkboards to cutting-edge AI is not just a tech success story. It’s a testament to resilience and a call to every young dreamer out there: “You don’t need to be born in Silicon Valley to build something world-class.”

Suman's life's a lesson to all: The route to success is simple. All one needs is vision, persistence and a heart that never forgets where he/she came from.