Among them is Swipe Telecom, founded by Shripal Gandhi, which offers Android-based tablets. This venture has sold tablets worth Rs 15 crore within 45 days of launch.
Thirty-year old, Shirpal Gandhi, founder & CEO, Swipe Telecom, studied chemical engineering from Institute of Chemical Technology (formerly UDCT) Mumbai and did MD in Nanotechnology form University of California, US.
While working at Nanotechnology venture, Gandhi came up with the idea of using his knowledge and expertise to cater to the Indian market. This idea led to the birth of Swipe Telecom in July 2012.
Swipe Telecom is headquartered in Palo Alto and offers Android-based affordable tablet personal computes (PCs). The co-design team of the company works out of the US and is managed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvand Business School alumni Sean Olson and Shripal overlooks the Indian operations.
"I was working closely with Sean. Many times over snacks or coffee we would discuss that what will be the future of mobile computing and my answer would always be 'just a swipe away'. I was sure that we could make a big difference. The real trigger happened when we were working with Apple, that time we realized that we could make something substantial different so the idea was conceptualized and we decided to get best brains from both East as well as the West. Sean heads the US operations as global technology and strategy advisor. We have a strong team based in Pune to look after Indian operations. Pune office looks after technology and R&D," says Shripa Gandhi.
To keep costs low, Swipe Telecom decided to use China as a manufacturing house to leverage the cost advantage.
"Players like Apple, Dell, and LG manufacture their products from fridge to cellphones in China as there is a good talent pool in China, labour arbitrage which can be encashed and lastly in China there is a base of technical know-how. All this factors adds to cost saving," says Shripa Gandhi.
The money saved from manufacturing is redirected to innovation. With 12 tablets currently up for sale, Swipe Telecom boasts of India's widest range of tablets. Priced between Rs 6,000-10,000 Swipe's table portfolio includes four variants. Indian first economy 3G compatible tablet, India's first dual-SIM tablet, dual core tablet, a 8 inch tablet, a fablet and a even a 3D tablet. Shripal spends time on market research to understand what the customer requires their tablet.
"We did brain storming with around 3000 young people and equal number of business professional to know their requirement from the product so we can incorporate and design the product accordingly. The youth wanted a tablet mainly for gaming, checking social networking sites like youtube, facebook, twitter etc. A professional required a tablet for using business mails, enterprise mails and video conferences," says Shripa Gandhi.
Shripal mentioned that time spent on market research helps him understand what customers want from their tablets and that has helped them to design and do innovation in the process.
Shripal hopes to close the fiscal at Rs 250 crore. Pune-based VC Mantra Ventures invested Rs 55 crore in Swipe Telecom. Valued at Rs 230 crore by investing banking firm Ambit Associates, Shripal is in talks with major global private equity firms to raise over Rs 100 crore to fuel companies international expansion plans but while all seems good now, Shripal also talks about the initial speed bumps.
"We faced some challenges during pre-sales campaign. People saw our product as a new brand. There were already few brands in the market that promised but could not deliver. So, there was a big question whether our brand could also deliver. But when people saw our products, the quality, background behind the group then they started believing in our product and in less than 30 days, sentiments changed," says Shripa Gandhi.
The company has a target to touch one million customers; Shripal wants to capture 30 percent of the tablet market in Asia by 2015. Customers will soon be swiping in the Middle East and South Africa. Shripal wants to attract tablet users in Europe and the US as well.
Not content with dolling out commercial tablets, Shripal wants to roll out a range of innovative products to cater to the needs of the education, healthcare and retail sectors.
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