Mivi, which sells quality mobile and electronics accessories has an incredible story about the start of brand.
Indian markets are overflowing with Korean, Chinese, American electronic accessories. But most of them are either costly or flawed. So under the idea of ‘Make In India’ to provide Indian consumers with better and affordable electronic accessories, the wonderful pair of Viswanadh Kandula & Midhula Devabhaktuni came with the ‘MIVI’ brand.
At Florida State University in the United States, Viswanadh Kandula and Midhula Devabhaktuni, both 31 years old and originally from Vijayawada, met while pursuing higher education. Viswanadh started working for a company that exported electronic goods from the US to India after their courses, while Midhula worked with Xerox and then Raymond James as a software engineer.
He found during his time as a trader that there was no Indian electronics brand that supplied quality goods at value-plus price points, certified for quality and accessible to the common man. He felt it was too costly for foreign brands to sell their goods in India. He discovered the perfect opportunity to use his experience and knowledge and decided to startup. The couple returned to India in 2015, after an eight-year stint in the US.
Mivi offers cables, chargers, custom and designer cases, tempered glass, power banks, car accessories, and audio items such as earphones and headphones, named after the founders-(Mi)dhula and (Vi)swanadh-. Bootstrapped, Mivi has been profitable since Q1, with an initial investment of Rs 3.5 crore. Facing external financing deals, Midhula says the start-up is self-sufficient. They have invested and made money in building the business over the years.
From college students to working professionals whose salaries range between Rs 15,000 and Rs 1 lakh, Mivi targets clients in the 17-35 age group. Those that are tech-savvy, music lovers, fitness freaks, interested in online shopping, and always searching for electronics and gadgets are their target audience.
Mivi is specifically built for the Indian client base. International brand goods usually do not cope well with the Indian climate, electric current changes, and voltage fluctuations. So they were safely out. However, Mivi’s BIS certified products are manufactured to withstand the Indian environment, including voltage fluctuations, and protect the unit. Mivi has a one-year manufacturer warranty and says that if the consumer encounters some problem with the product, its representative’s repair problems. Because they are available on most social media sites, they are easily accessible.
Approximately 60 percent of Mivi’s clients come from Tier I towns. When bought from their platform or via affiliate markets such as Amazon , Flipkart, Paytm etc., they directly ship goods to customers.
While they were approached by Amazon to bring their products to the global market, they wanted to concentrate on India first before bringing it globally. While Mivi products are designed and developed in Hyderabad, South Korea and China manufacture them.
Mivi ‘s products appear to have better features at an average basket size of two, priced at almost half the cost of Sony and Philips, which do not have a significant presence in their categories. Mivi’s average price in the chargers’ segment is around Rs 1,000. It is Rs 3,000 in the music category.
Mivi did business worth Rs 8 crore during its first year. They currently have sales of Rs 2.5 to 3 crore per month and are targeted at clocking over Rs 30 crore by the end of FY18.
The market size of earphones and headphones will surpass $25 billion by 2024, according to a study by Global Market Insights. Advances in wireless technology are expected to drive market growth, combined with the growing demand for fitness-friendly earphones. Mivi is expanding product categories with different items in the categories of cable, chargers and audio. A range of products in the audio category, including Mivi Saxo Bluetooth headphones and Mivi Thunder Beats Wireless Bluetooth earphones, were rolled out last year.
E-commerce is rising massively, but a small percentage of overall revenues remains. Tier II and III cities are also largely dependent on retail stores even today. Mivi aims to start and develop an omni-channel retail market to be open to more customers.
