Cricket legend, Sachin Tendulkar believes in IOT and invests in a Hyderabad based startup

Smartron India Pvt Ltd, an upcoming global technology OEM firm and an Internet of Things (IoT) startup, lately started a new innings with our beloved cricket legend, Sachin Tendulkar. Not only being the brand ambassador for the company, Sachin also is a strategic shareholder in the firm hence making it his first investment in a technology oriented startup.

Sachin’s Hit

On this move, Sachin Tendulkar says, “I have always been fascinated by technology. Smartron’s founding vision for the need for a robust product ecosystem in the country to grow is very impressive. We need to support brands that are “designed and engineered in India” by our Entrepreneurs and Engineers that ably compete in the global markets. I look forward to being part of the growth journey of Smartron buoyed by tremendous growth opportunities offered by IoT worldwide.”

Pitch

Smartron is headed by Mahesh Lingareddy who is also the co-founder and CEO of Soft Machines Inc. The company is riding on the back of the IoT wave by developing products in the areas of smart, sensor, robotics, artificial intelligence, cloud and big data technologies to bring launch smart devices, services and care targeting consumer, enterprise, industrial and infrastructure markets.

Besides, having investors from the US, India and Middle East, it also has R&D centres in Hyderabad and Bengaluru and support centres across the globe to empower technology sourcing, marketing and sales. It is moving closely with vendors, partners and customers to create together and join in building a strong product ecosystem.

This Hyderabad-based startup is now all geared up to launch a couple of smart devices for consumer and enterprise markets. Nevertheless, it has already launched two flagship products, tbook and tphone, fully built, designed and engineered in India.

CEO’s Commentary

On Tendulkar’s innings with the Smartron, Lingareddy said, “We are very excited and privileged to have Sachin join us in our journey. He is one of the greatest Indian stories of our times, a true global icon and brand that disrupted the game of cricket, and inspired generations. We, at Smartron aim to achieve the same in the technology space by building a global product brand from India, disrupting the IoT market with innovative products and inspiring generations of engineers and entrepreneurs.“

Indian CEO Take

This is not the first cricketer that has been pulled into the Indian startup ecosystem, Virak Kohli invested in kids fitness startup called, Stepathlon Kids, apart from investing in a sports gym. MS Dhoni, invested in Seven that manufactures fitness footwear. Other sport people like Saina Nehwal is also sucked into the startup ecosystem. Amazing to see how investments are pouring into the ecosystem. This reminds us of the housing bubble in the US, a decade ago. Eagerly waiting to see if this startup bubble will burst.