Indian phone-maker Lava International claimed that it will raise $90 million (Rs630 crore) from GEM Global Yield fund to invest in R&D with the aim of emerging as a handset market leader in the sub-$150 price segment.
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GEM group will make the investment over the next 36 months for through a 'Share Subscription Facility' which will allow the company to sell American depositary receipts to the US fund house in exchange for drawing down available funds, Lava said in a statement.
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āThe company will use the funds to strengthen its business by funding its research, development and business expansion activities, with the objective of becoming a market leader in the sub-$150 cellular phone segment,ā Lava said.
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Lavaās smartphone assembly plants have been long under-utilised, with the handset along with other Indian players seeing their share taken over in a market swamped by Chinese players such as Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo, besides Koreaās Samsung.
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But Lava's share has picked up off late. Lava has a 5.3% overall share of the handset installed base. In feature phones, it has an 8.5% share while in smartphones; its share is 3.1%, including Xolo, said research agency TechArc.
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Despite the tough competitive scenario, Lava has been making significant investments to ramp up its research and development, and has been snapping up some contract manufacturing deals.
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At the peak of Sino-India trade war in August last year, Lava along with Micromax had bagged a Rs 2,500 order for manufacturing sub-$200 devices from US telco major AT&T along with rivals T-Mobile and Sprint.
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Lava also bagged a multi-crore deal from US conglomerate General Electric to manufacture hand-held devices meant specifically for medical use in September last year.
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