Micromax, an Indian consumer electronics company headquartered in Gurgaon, Haryana, India will be investing a sum of $400 Millions in startups this year. Micromax entered the Indian Market as an Information Technology firm in 2000 with a part of their firm developing embedded systems. Micromax then entered the mobile phone market with their feature phones and then shifted to manufacturing Android Smartphones. As of now, Micromax claims to have the largest market share of the Indian Smartphone market as of 2014 but Samsung Mobiles refuted those claims claiming the top position with the help of GfK’s analysis.
Micromax now wants to strengthen their services domain and will be investing a large sum of $400 Million in more than 20 promising start-ups. According to the Co-Founder of Micromax Rahul Sharma, start-ups that have the synergy, innovation, and will help them build an ecosystem of connected devices will be the ones in which Micromax will invest. Micromax will invest $0.5 Million to $20 Million in these start-ups depending on the size and promise shown by the start-up.
Micromax has already invested in the in Bengaluru-based health and fitness company ‘HealthifyMe’. It is now a minority stakeholder in the ‘HelthifyMe’. The company is fond of investing in start-ups and invests in promising start-ups from India, US, and Europe. The primary reason of this investment seems to be the tough competition given to Micromax by Samsung and the King of Chinese Market Xiaomi. Micromax will invest in more and more start-ups and strengthen their services domain.
Micromax also started a new Mobile Brand YU. It is an online-only brand first launched at Amazon. When it was first launched, 40,000 units were sold in just 4 seconds. YU is an amalgamation of Cyanogen and Micromax to produce a premium handset with the best in class software. Micromax signed a deal with Cyanogen that Micromax will exclusively have the rights to sell mobile devices with Cyanogen. OnePlus One was also banned in India to sell its Flagship Killer due to this deal of exclusivity between Micromax and Cyanogen. YU is likely to fill the hole left by the OnePlus One in the Market for people who are willing to only use Cyanogen in their Android Mobile phone.