Everybody Told Us Making In India Is Crazy, Now MNCs Want Us To Make Their Products: MIVI Founders

Hyderabad-based accessories brand MIVI has become one of the first Indian companies to start manufacturing audio products like Bluetooth speakers, headphones, TWS earbuds, etc from scratch. MIVI is also planning to venture into the wearables market in India and will be among the few to manufacture smartwatches in India as well.

The electronics brand MIVI was founded in 2015 by Viswanadh Kandula and Midhula Devabhaktuni. The ‘MIVI couple’ left their jobs in the U.S. and came back to India to start up.

MIVI founders Viswanadh Kandula and Midhula Devabhaktuni in an exclusive video interview with Debashis Sarkar of News18Tech shared MIVI’s ‘Make In India’ journey in detail.

WATCH VIDEO | Everybody Told Us Making In India Is Crazy, Now MNCs Want Us To Make Their Products: MIVI Founders

MIVI started in India by selling chargers in the country and slowly moved into audio products due to the market demand in India. Initially, MIVI, like other Indian brands, were sourcing their products from China and sold them in India. However, very soon they realised the importance of manufacturing their own products. Being a small brand, MIVI found it difficult to get access to tier 1 suppliers in China and managing product quality became a difficult job.

“When we discussed the idea of making products in India, everybody told us that we were crazy. In fact, I was the first person to call Viswanadh crazy! But soon it was all about risking it all for the greater good," said Midhula Devabhaktuni, co-founder and CMO at MIVI.

From getting 20-30 orders per day half a decade back, the brand MIVI has now become a prominent player in the audio segment in India. MIVI’s plant (Avishkaran Industries) in Hyderabad has over 1500 employees out of which 80% of the workforce is women.

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While MIVI aims to expand its presence in across India from Tier 1 to Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, another key highlight of its journey is that few global companies and some of its Indian competitors are now asking the founders as to whether the company will be able to manufacturer their products at MIVI’s facility.

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