DataWind to set up Rs 100-crore manufacturing facility in Hyderabad

The plant, which will start production within 90 days, will have two million units of smartphones, tablets and netbooks per year

DataWind Innovations, the Indian arm of Toronto Stock Exchange-listed low-cost mobile devices maker, DataWind Inc, is in the process of setting up a manufacturing facility in Hyderabad. The investment would be to the tune of Rs 100 crore. 

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) to this effect was signed between the Telangana IT, electronics and communications department and DataWind today.

The company proposes to use Rs 100 crore of the $27.41 million that it had raised via an initial public offering (IPO) on the Toronto Stock Exchange in June 2014, to invest in the Hyderabad facility.

“The Hyderabad facility is expected to start production within 90 days, and will generate 500 direct jobs,” Suneet Singh Tuli, president and chief executive officer of DataWind, told reporters.

“The Hyderabad unit will have the capacity to churn out two million units of smartphones, tablets and netbooks per year," Tuli said, adding that while 70 per cent of the production from its two facilities would cater to the domestic market, the rest would be exported to South Africa, Nigeria, Colombia and Mexico. 

This would be the second manufacturing facility for DataWind in India, with the first being in Amritsar. It is nearing an annual production capacity of three million mobile phone units at the plant.