Low Cost Mobile Phone Maker BRITZO Sets Up Operations In India; Makes $15.3 Mn Make In India Commitment

Driven by the aim of digitising rural India, communications company BRITZO has launched its operations in the country, with a $15.3 Mn (INR 100 Cr) commitment towards the ‘Make in India’ initiative.

With this, the startup is gearing up to tap the growing mobile phone market in India. As per the media statement, BRITZO is leveraging advancements in Information and Communication technologies to build a portfolio comprising ‘smart’ feature phone offerings at cost-effective price points.

These offerings will be aimed at consumers across tier III, tier IV, and tier V markets in the country, stated the company’s spokesperson.

Commenting on the development, Pradipto Ganguly, CEO and Co-Founder of BRITZO said, “Rural geographies in India, despite housing about two-thirds of the nation’s population, are still largely untouched by the large-scale digitization that’s currently sweeping across the country. With the launch of BRITZO, our overarching objective is to bring this rural mass online by delivering superlative smart mobility offerings, armed with cutting-edge technologies, at pocket-friendly prices.”

In line with the vision of ‘Make in India’, the company has committed to invest $15.3 Mn (INR 100 Cr) for indigenous production of low-cost mobile phones.

BRITZO: Targeting Mobile Phone Buyers In Rural India

The brainchild of Pradipto Ganguly and Dharamvir Shaw, BRITZO was founded in 2017 with the vision to drive digital enablement across the country’s rural heartland by offering an evolved alternative to feature phones.

The company intends to enable convenient access to new-age technological features for its customers, while progressively making digital technologies a part of their day-to-day lifestyles.

It is building a product portfolio of specialised smart feature phone offerings based on extensive R&D to this end at its manufacturing facilities in India and China. Its flagship product is iVVO.

As part of their Indian launch, BRITZO has deployed specialised testing teams for software and hardware quality checking. The company has also made its processes environment-friendly with e-waste recycle management.

With the goal of securing 3% of the Indian mobile phone market share, the company is set to launch across 17 states including UP, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, and Gujarat during the first phase of its expansion.

As stated by Ganguly, the company will then target other mobile phone markets across the country after Q1 of FY19.

Recently, in the fourth week of February, Airtel entered into a partnership with Google to bring low-cost smartphones powered by Google’s Android Oreo (Go edition) to the Indian market.

The entry level 4G smartphones under Airtel’s ‘Mera Pehla Smartphone’ programme will be shipped with Android Oreo (Go edition) as standard OS starting March, 2018.

Earlier, in January, reports surfaced that Gurugram-headquartered consumer electronics company Micromax was looking to launch the country’s first Android Oreo Go-based smartphone. Dubbed as Bharat Go, the smartphone will also be equipped with the newest edition of Google’s Android mobile operating system.

According to a recent report by Forrester, the global mobile user populace is expected to touch 5.5 Bn by 2022, with India leading the growth. BRITZO is banking on the untapped potential of the country’s low-cost mobile phone market, especially in rural India, to strengthen its business.