Coolpad plans to invest $500 mn in India over next 5 years

Chinese smartphone maker Coolpad Technologies plans to invest USD 500 million (about Rs 3,500 crore) in India over the next five years to ramp up local manufacturing and push sales, a senior company official said Wednesday.

"We are making plans for five years and not one or two years. Our plan is to invest USD 500 million over the next five years. It will be on materials, marketing, operations, expanding sales team and after sales services," Coolpad Technologies India CEO Fisher Yuan said on sidelines of an event to launch Coolpad Cool 3 plus smartphone models.

The company announced re-entry to online sales after a gap of around eight months with launch of two variants of Cool 3 Plus smartphones for Rs 5,999 and Rs 6,499 per unit.

"This year we have achived sales of 1 million smartphones. With entry into online channels through Amazon, we expect to reach 3 million by the end of this year," Coolpad India Online Business Head Pankaj Upadhyay said.

The company is also planning to double its reach across retail outlets in the country with focus on north and northeast region.

It plans to sell phones made in India through its Noida-based electronic contract manufacturing partner MCM Telecom Equipment.

"We will start PCB (motherboard) level manufacturing in India of Cool 3 Plus from August and we will keep adding new models," Yuan said.

He said the company is also getting ready with its 5G smartphones which will be launched early next year.

"Indian launch of 5G smartphone will depend on the readiness of the network," Yuan said.

He said the company started investing in 5G technology way back in 2012 and has filed 800 patent applications for the next generation technology.

"We have been granted 120 device to device 5G patents. We are also in talks with Qualcomm and Mediatek on 5G technology in our smartphones," Yuan said.