Lava hopeful of securing funds this fiscal to grow smartphone biz; forays into smartwatch market

Lava International's President Sunil Raina

Lava International is hopeful of securing fresh funds from private equity investors within the ongoing fiscal year to grow its smartphone business, a top executive said.

He added that the home-bred mobile phone maker has again started work to come out with an initial public offering (IPO) over the next two to three years.

Lava International's President Sunil Raina told Moneycontrol that the company is already in touch with domestic and international investors to raise as much as Rs 250-300 crore.

Raina said it plans to invest Rs 500 crore in research and development (R&D) and marketing over a two-to-three-year period.

To grow its revenues, the company has forayed into the country’s crowded smartwatch market and aims to sell half a million smartwatches worth Rs 100 crore by the end of this fiscal year.

Raina said that with the smartwatch foray, the company will also be able to double revenues from the accessories business to around Rs 200 crore.

Lava already sells audio products like neckbands and True Wireless (TWS) earphones under its accessories business.

In September 2021, Lava International Ltd filed a draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with markets regulator Sebi to raise about Rs 500 crore through a fresh issue of shares and private placement of about Rs 1,000 crore. However, the company shelved the IPO plans due to challenging market conditions.

Seeing tailwinds from the Indian market, Lava is aiming to double its smartphone sales in this fiscal year, riding on the 4G to 5G transition wave.

The company’s smartphone sales have almost trebled year-on-year during the last fiscal.

The company will soon launch 4G feature phones priced at Rs 1,800 for consumers who want to use content services like YouTube and WhatsApp.

Lava, through its subsidiary SOJO Manufacturing Services (AP) Private Limited, has also begun talks with domestic and multinational companies for local manufacturing of tablets and laptops.

SOJO recently received approval for IT hardware under the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme.