Digihomes to raise Rs 100 cr

Digihomes Solutions, an Aftek group company providing intelligent home solutions, is in talks with realty and technology venture capital funds for securing funding of Rs 80-100 crore by September this year, Ashutosh Humnabadkar, chief executive officer, Digihome Solutions, said.

With three projects, two in Pune and one in Bangalore, currently deploying its integrated solution, Humnabadkar said, "We expect to start work on 7-8 more projects in the financial year 2007-08."

The Pune projects include Rohan Tapovan, a 112-flat project and Wonder Futura, a 118- flat project while the Bangalore project is a 64-villa, Rohon Ashima, in the upscale locality of Brookefield.

The company offers integrated solutions with features for safety, security, automation, information, communication and entertainment rolled in one.

Chandrashekar Raje, director, Digihomes, claimed that this was an untapped market with no competition as other players like Xicom offer only automated security solutions or Schnieder and Honeywell offer only part solutions.

Digihome currently has offices in Pune, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore. "In the next two years, automated home solutions will contribute Rs 100 crore per year to our revenues," said Humnabadkar.

Automated solutions, he said, was in huge demand in India, Singapore and West Asia.

The company is targeting new projects costing per square feet upwards of Rs 3,000 as the solutions cost per sft would be an additional Rs 100. "Depending on the requirements, the solutions cost Rs 1-3 lakh," said Raje.

The company plans to set up 8-10 new offices in the coming years to cover the metros and tier II cities like Kochi, which have huge potential. Humnabadkar is hopeful of completing the funding by September and the expansion by December.

"We are negotiating for funds requirements of Rs 80-100 crore with realty and technology funds and will finalise on the terms and requirements by September," he said.