Mukesh Ambani-led Jio is looking to revive a dying market and increase the loyal customer base for its services through its JioBharat phones. With users moving towards smartphones, the feature phone market has been fading and faced an uncertain future. But JioBharat phones helped trigger 300 percent YoY growth for the segment in the July-September 2024 quarter. The Reliance Industries' boss' feature phone portfolio held a 63 percent share of the market.
One of the company's partnering with Jio in the disruption is electronics manufacturer Dixon Technologies. Led by self-made billionaire Sunil Vachani, the company expects to make Rs 1600 crore-Rs 1800 crore revenue by making the Jio Bharat phones by March 2024. Dixon had bagged an order to make 15 million JioBharat phones from the RIL subsidiary, which later increased to 20 million phones.
Sunil Vachani founded Dixon Technologies back in 1993 as a television set manufacturer with a loan of Rs 20 lakh from his father. He started by making 14.1 inch TVs from a shed he rented near Delhi. Today, Dixon Technologies is a listed firm with a market cap of over Rs 39,000 crore. According to Forbes real-time list, Sunil Vachani has a net worth of over Rs 13,300 crore ($1.6 billion).
Dixon Technologies clients span from Mukesh Ambani’s Jio to major global smartphone companies like Samsung, Xiaomi and Panasonic. The shares of the company have been growing since it was listed back in 2017. Vachani's firm today boasts a capacity to manufacture 5 crore smartphones annually. 52-year-old Vachani holds one-third stake in the company. In 2021, he bought a lavish Rs 170 crore bungalow in Lutyens Delhi.
