India’s Micromax: we’ll IPO in 2018. And oh yeah, we’ll enter China too

India’s biggest homegrown phone maker is eyeing an IPO in 2018, according to one of its co-founders. Vikas Jain told the audience at a tech conference this afternoon that Micromax wants to use the money generated from the listing to develop a suite of web services that tie in to the phones that it sells.

“The company can’t do that without more cash coming in,” Vikas said, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Micromax also runs the Yu sub-brand, designed to compete with Xiaomi and Motorola for younger shoppers.

Micromax hasn’t decided whether to IPO in India or the US, he added. The firm was founded in 2000. It ventured into flip phones in 2008, before then expanding to smartphones. Now it’s India’s second biggest smartphone brand, right behind Samsung, according to data from Canalys.

If the plan goes ahead, Micromax will be India’s largest ever IPO from the new wave of consumer tech companies.

See: India’s largest smartphone maker looks to Apple to reinvent itself

The Chinese dream

Speaking at the Rise conference in Hong Kong, Vikas revealed another ambition – to enter the extremely competitive Chinese smartphone market next year. That’s part of Micromax’s goal to become the world’s fifth-largest smartphone maker by 2020, he explained.

But that could be an unwinnable war.

“I’m not sure why they’re doing this. The Chinese market is not growing and it’s really competitive. I don’t know how they will survive there,” said IDC analyst Kiranjeet Kaur to the WSJ.

Smartphone usage is booming in India. Photo credit: Wikimedia..

Most of Micromax’s phones are aimed at budget-conscious shoppers, which suits the India market where the average selling price of a new phone is $158. However, the average price in China is more than double – US$319. That has been benefitting the iPhone and more premium devices from brands like Huawei, Oppo, and Vivo.

It’s the inevitable evolution of China’s mobile market as it hits peak smartphone.

Source: Wall Street Journal