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— A. Muralitharan

An inside view of a UniverCell store in Chennai.

R. Ravikumar

Chennai, Oct. 1 iLabs Venture Capital has invested Rs 100 crore in the Chennai-headquartered UniverCell Telecommunications India Pvt Ltd, that owns the UniverCell brand of multi-brand mobile phone retail chain.

“The investment happened over four tranches from 2007,” said Mr Satish Babu, Managing Director, UniverCell.

Armed with the funds, UniverCell now plans to raise the number of its outlets from 167 now to over 300 by March. In the process, the company will also get into Orissa and West Bengal, said Mr Ramesh Barath, Vice-President (Marketing), UniverCell.

For the year 2007-08, it registered a turnover of Rs 350 crore. The company had 10 stores in 2006. By mid 2007-08, the network was expanded to 100 stores, and in the last few months it added another 67 stores. It also tied up with Spencers’ to establish shop-in-shop at Music World outlets.

“We currently have three such outlets in Chennai. However, we are keen on opening more standalone stores,” said Mr Barath. By 2010, UniverCell hopes to have national footprint with 1,000 stores.

In another initiative, UniverCell has tied up with Oriental Insurance Co to offer its customers theft and damage cover. The tie-up has been facilitated by Alegion Insurance Broking Ltd. Announcing this at a press conference here on Wednesday, Mr Barath said on an average 20 lakh mobile handsets are being lost every month, and this package will come as a relief for those who lose their mobiles. Apart from total loss of mobiles, the insurance will also cover any damage to the handset.

According to Mr Barath, the period of insurance is for 12 months from the date of purchase. For total loss, the insurer will replace with the same model (same brand) handset. In case the model is not available in the market, any other model with comparable features will be given.

For partial loss, the cost of repair will be paid without any depreciation on parts replaced for loss or damage. The insurance premium will be 2.5 per cent of the handset cost.

More Stories on : Venture Capital | Telecommunications

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