Gone were the days when we used to day “Behind every man’s success there is a woman”. Now it’s time to say “Beside every man’s success there is a woman”. A young couple hailing from Vijayawada proves this statement right. Working together they have achieved a ginormous success with a turnover of 30 crores in a span of 2 years of establishing their startup.
Indian markets are flooded with Korean, Chinese, American electronic accessories. But most of them are either expensive or faulty. So they came up with this ‘Make In India’ concept to provide quality and inexpensive electronic accessories to Indian consumers. Meet this wonderful couple Viswanadh Kandula & Midhula Devabhaktuni who are proud owners of the brand ‘Mivi’.
More about Viswanadh & Midhula
Viswanadh and Midhula are both 31years old and are from Vijayawada. Both of them studied in Florida State University where they met and later got married. Viswanadh worked for a company that exported electronic products from US to India while Midhula initially was with Xerox as a software engineer and later moved to Raymond James.
The story of Mivi
While Vishwanadh was working in US he noticed that there is no electronic brand in India that provides certified quality products that are accessible and affordable to common man. With the expertise and knowledge he gained from 8 years of experience in US, he decided about a start up in India. They moved back here in 2015 and established Seminole Electronics Private Limited and launched the brand ‘Mivi’ their brain child. The name Mivi is coined from their names, (Mi)dhula and (Vi)swanadh.
Mivi has quite a good range of products. Chargers, USB Cables, power banks, screen gaurds, custom and designer cases, audio accessories such as earphones and head phones and car accessories too.
How is Mivi different from other brands?
Mivi is designed specifically for Indian customer base. Generally foreign brand products do not cope well with Indian environment, shifts in electric current and voltage fluctuations. Hence they ware out easily. But Mivi’s products are BIS certified are made to withstand the Indian environment, including voltage fluctuations, and protect the device. Mivi provides one-year manufacturer warranty and claims that their representatives fix things if the customer faces any problem with the product. They are easily approachable as they are available on most of social media platforms.
Mivi targets customers in the 17-35 age group, from college students to working professionals whose salary ranges between Rs 15,000 and Rs 1 lakh. About 60 percent of Mivi’s customers are from Tier I cities. They directly ship products to customers when purchased from their site or through partner marketplaces like Amazon, Flipkart, Paytm etc.
Their Journey so far
With a initial self funding of 3.5 crore, Mivi is now a team of 40 people across engineering, marketing, R&D, Operations, customer service, and accounting. Mivi has been profitable since Q1. Despite offers for external funding, Midhula says their startup is self-sufficient. Their main difficulty was to convince the customers about the quality of their products as Mivi was available only Online and there was no direct interaction with customers. They did not spend much for marketing as the good talk spread automatically by satisfied users.
Future Plans
Though Amazon approached them to introduce their products in global market, they have decided to first focus on India before taking it global. Though Mivi products are designed and engineered in Hyderabad, they are manufactured in South Korea and China. So they are planning for a production facility in India by 3rd quarter of 2018. In first year they did a business of 8crore and saw of raise of 300 percent in the second year. They are sure to make a turnover of 30 crore by FY18. They are planning to expand the range of their products.
The fabulous user ratings of Amazon other online market places shows how happy customers are with Mivi products. Let’s also wish them Luck!!
