Hero Electronix to invest Rs 150-200 cr, forays into consumer space

The company, which is part of the Hero Group, has launched a voice-controlled smart indoor camera and smart sensors under the 'Qubo' brand

Hero Electronix on Tuesday said it plans to invest Rs 150-200 crore over the next few years primarily in its new consumer tech brand 'Qubo' that will offer a portfolio of AI-powered connected smart devices.

The company, which is part of the Hero Group, has launched a voice-controlled smart indoor camera and smart sensors (for doors, gas leakage and smoke) under the 'Qubo' brand.

"We want to take Qubo to a million homes in the next 3-5 years. We have been at the forefront of engineering technology and services for enterprise with Tessolve, Mybox, and Zenatix. We see a great opportunity in the consumer space for building products that can meaningfully impact our lives," Hero Electronix Founder Director Ujjwal Munjal told PTI.

He added that the company has already invested close to Rs 350 crore in the company across these brands and plans to invest another Rs 150-200 crore over the next couple of years.

"We have spent about two years in R&D of these products focussing on consumer needs along with aspects like encryption and security. We are starting with smart cameras and sensors and will bring more products in home, automotive and kids categories as well," he said.

Priced at Rs 13,490, the 'Qubo' smart indoor camera features Amazon's Alexa voice assistant, a full HD camera, 2.8-inch LCD screen for controls and offers encrypted video streaming and storage. It also acts as the smart home hub to control the sensors (available for about Rs 3,000 each).

"The device houses a custom secure silicon chip by Qualcomm, with PKI based root-of-trust, making it tamper-proof and protecting against malware. Data transmission and storage also complies with the highest global standards of cryptographic algorithms and security," Hero Electronix CEO Nikhil Rajpal said.

He added that the products have been engineered and designed by the in-house team at Hero Electronix.

Hero Electronix - which was founded in 2015 and has clocked a revenue of about Rs 600 crore - plans to launch more than 10 smart products across home automation, automotive and entertainment categories in the next two years.

These would include products like smart plugs, smart video doorbell and baby room monitors.