Indus OS targets 100 million users in 3 years

Home-grown smartphone operating system Indus OS has raised $4 million (nearly Rs 26 crore) in pre-series B round from existing investors ...

Home-grown smartphone operating system Indus OS has raised $4 million (nearly Rs 26 crore) in pre-series B round from existing investors including Omidyar Network, Ventureast and JSW Ventures. The company did not share the equity held by promoters after this round or the value of the company post funding.

The company now aims to acquire 100 million users in the next three years and is in talks with major Chinese and international smartphone brands for partnerships as it sees Chinese players' role crucial in expanding its customer-base.
"Partnering with the Chinese brands was one of our top priorities this year, thus we opened an office in China earlier this year to work towards this goal. Consequently, Indus OS signed its first international brand partnership in November with itel Mobile (Chinese brand)," Rakesh Deshmukh, co-founder & CEO at Indus OS said in response to a query from ET.
itel Mobile is looking to introduce software differentiation in the Indian smartphone market, something which it believes holds the key to future success. After the latest round, Indus OS has a total funding of $13 million. It plans to use the funds to accelerate brand partnerships, user acquisition and new product development.
"We will strengthen our efforts to build the Indus OS platform for developers to reach the Indian masses through dedicated brand accounts," Deshmukh added.
According to the company, its OS, which was launched in 2015, pipped iOS, MIUI with a market share of 7.6% to become the second most popular smartphone OS in India where Android dominated the market with 82.3% share, as per a report by Counterpoint Research released in the third quarter of 2016. Indus OS commands a user base of 10 million across its smartphone brand partners. After partnering Micromax, the company went on to explore partnerships with more Indian brands including Intex, Karbonn, Celkon and Swipe.