Gaurav Khatri, co-founder, Noise, told ET that wearable as a category is growing very fast, especially for smartwatches in the country. “The category has now started penetrating extensively to the mass audience now. This will be one of the major growth drivers for us…we have grown over 200% in this category in the last one year.” “There’s an acceptance towards the brand.”
Khatri said that the company has developed entire technology for smartwatches in-house and has local research and development (R&D). “This is allowing us to keep ahead of any other competition in terms of getting the features at the right time.”
Noise has grown over 100% in the last one year in the true wireless stereo (TWS) segment, and is expecting to grow over 50% this year, he said.
“We are number two truly wireless brand in India. From a 2% market share we have already reached to a 9% market share in just the last one year. So, again, that has also helped us in getting the growth.”
70% of the company’s business comes from smartwatches, while rest comes from audio products.
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Last year, India saw almost 12 million odd units sold in the smartwatches category and the market is expected to grow north of 24 million odd million units sold this year. “So, you can see the penetration is going higher. The category itself is going 100% year on year,” Khatri added.
The co-founder said that the incubator division, Noise Labs, is now working on various new products other than smartwatches and TWS products.
“We are trying to make and bring a lot of new technology…we will build the products which are much more futuristic and much more innovative that we have not seen in the mass segment,”Khatri said.
He added that Noise has established an entire R&D team for its innovation lab.
Noise had last year partnered with Optiemus Electronics Limited (OEL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of
Limited, to manufacture products locally.
OEL is designing and manufacturing hearable products for Noise at its two plants in Noida.
“We have a very strong joint partnership with OEL. So we are with them as an exclusive partner. We have built that R&D arm with them who are helping us in building capabilities.”
Khatri said that 50-60% of its products will be locally made in the next few months, up from 25%.
He said that the company is looking for partners who can bring the next level of growth and help it with R&D and tech capabilities.
