Hyderabad: Milagrow, a homegrown consumer robot brand, is keen on setting up a robot assembly and manufacturing unit in Telangana. Currently, it is making them in the Gurgoan. The new assembly line will be needed as the company is seeing a huge demand for robots due to the stress on hygiene due to Covid, said Rajeev Karwal, Founder and Chairman, Milagrow.
The company, which started in 2011, has been making floor, window, and swimming pool cleaning robots. Its other products include body massaging robots, lawn mowing robots, and full wet cleaning robots, and other connected devices.
“Floor cleaning robots, due to Covid, are seeing good traction and Hyderabad is one of the leading markets for us. We have an installed base of about 1,000 customers in Telangana and AP,” said Karwal.
“Hyderabad is a good hi-tech zone. We are now assembling the units in Gurgaon as the market is small. The way the market is growing, there is a possibility of us soon getting a larger facility for assembly and manufacturing and at that time of point, we cannot ignore Hyderabad as the possible destination. It has good support infrastructure,” the company official said.
It counts several hospitality players, facility management service providers, pharma companies, and a few other industries and resident welfare associations as its clients here.
“Hyderabad has a lot of expatriates and technology savvy people who want to gift robots to their parents and grandparents. About 30 percent of the floor cleaning robots are being bought by/for senior citizens,” he said.
“TVs, ACs, and mobile phones have seen in a revolution in their use. Now, the time has come for a robotic revolution. Floor cleaning, lawn mowing, swimming pool cleaning, back massaging and more can be handled by robots. The humanoid can also play companions,” said Karwal adding that the company this year was hopeful of a seven-fold increase in its revenues from the robotic segment.
Floor cleaning robots account for the highest sales for the company. They are priced around Rs 20,000 and go up to Rs 1.2 lakh. The lower end ones are preferred for domestic uses, he said.
In India, about 2 lakh to 3 lakh units of robots get sold. It is just a tenth of China, which sells about 30 lakh to 40 lakh units. “But going by the way adoption rates, we should be 20 lakh to 30 lakh-units markets by growing by 2024. That time it will be good to set up a robot manufacturing plant as well in the country with a capacity to make one million units for India and international markets,” Karwal said about the outlook for the industry.
“Humanoids can be used to interact with students, move around airports, and public place giving instructions, serve meals in a restaurant, and also don the role of a receptionist. They have Alexa also,” he said.
