Swipe Technologies to raise $20 mn in Series-B round

The smartphone maker to roll out its first Make in India product from Chakan plant in Jan 2016

Pune-based handset and tablet maker, Swipe Technologies, is in the process of raising $20 million (approximately Rs 130 crore), primarily to scale up its manufacturing capacities and research and development (R&D) capabilities, according to its founder and chief executive officer Shripal Gandhi.

"We are in advanced discussion with a couple of private equity (PE) firms as well as with the existing investor to raise $20 million in a Series-B round of funding. We expect to close the round within the next two quarters," he told mediapersons here on Wednesday. 

The almost three-year-old company had raised $5 million in a Series-A round from PE firm Kalaari Capital one-and-a-half year ago. 

Gandhi said work on the company's manufacturing plant at Chakan near Pune, with a capacity to churn out two million tablets and smartphones annually, was under way, and would roll out its first product from the facility in January 2016. 

Launches 4G LTE smartphone at Rs 4,666

Swipe Technologies today announced the launch of Elite 2, a new affordable 4G LTE (long-term evolution) smartphone priced at Rs 4,666.

The 4.5-inch, dual-SIM-supporting smartphone, which runs on Freedom OS, a proprietary operating system developed by Swipe based on Android 5.1 Lollipop, has under its hood a 1.3GHz MediaTek quad-core processor offering 1GB of RAM. 

With an 8 GB in-built storage, which could be expanded up to 32 GB via a microSD card, Elite 2 boosts an 8-megapixel (MP) rear shooter with LED flash and a 5-MP front-facing snapper. The handset is powered by a 1,900mAh battery. 

"The online-only flagship product will be available exclusively on Flipkart from November 8," Gandhi said, adding that Swipe and its online partner were expecting to sell 200,000 units of Elite 2 over the next two months. 

Quoting a recent report by Cyber Media Research, Gandhi said the 4G smartphone market had witnessed record sales of 10 million units during the last quarter, registering a sequential growth of 2,400%. 

Swipe had sold 100,000 tablet PCs and 150,000 smartphones in the July-September quarter of FY16, and is aiming at cornering a 2% market share in the domestic 4G smartphone market by the end of this financial year, Gandhi said, adding that Swipe was expecting to close this fiscal with revenues of Rs 300 crore, as against Rs 100 crore in the previous year.