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He Started With Rs 10 Lakh Selling Nokia Phones
He Started With Rs 10 Lakh Selling Nokia Phones, Now His Company Is Expanding to Africa- The Cellecor Story
In 2010, a graduate from Delhi University started a phone retail business with about Rs 10 lakh, part savings, part a small loan. He wasn’t building a brand. He was trading Nokia and Samsung handsets across a shop counter.
Fifteen years later, that person, Ravi Agarwal, is Co-Founder and Managing Director of Cellecor Gadgets Limited, a company that reported revenue of nearly Rs 1,292 crore in FY26. This week, Cellecor announced its biggest move yet, a Rs 300 crore fundraise to build its first international manufacturing facility, in Liberia, Africa.
The Rs 10 lakh gamble
Agarwal didn’t set out with a grand plan. “Entrepreneurship was not a predetermined goal, but I recognised the opportunity within the consumer electronics industry and decided to build something independently," he said.
Before starting out, he spent nearly two years in the commodities business. He saved around Rs 6 to 7 lakh, added a small loan, and started with roughly Rs 10 lakh in total.
The early years were purely trading. Agarwal formally set up the company in 2012 and ran it as a trading business until 2017, buying and selling other brands’ products. Around 2017, GST and rising compliance requirements pushed him to build his own brand instead of continuing as a trader. That’s when Cellecor was born.
Skip smartphones, focus on Tier III markets
Agarwal skipped smartphones at first, a category that needs heavy capital, and started with feature phones instead, targeting Tier II, III and IV markets where affordability mattered most. “Given the significant capital required to compete in smartphones, we deliberately chose categories that required lower investments while allowing us to establish a nationwide distribution network," he said.
That distribution-first approach has stayed core to the company. Agarwal says most consumer brands in India are built around one of three models, marketing-led, product-led, or distribution-led. Cellecor picked the third, building one of the country’s largest offline distribution networks.
Cellecor later expanded into mobile accessories, hearables, wearables, and audio products. The pandemic pushed demand for communication and entertainment devices up sharply, and the company scaled fast across India during that period.
In 2021, Cellecor entered the Smart TV category, its first step into appliances. After its 2023 IPO, that push expanded further with washing machines, refrigerators, air conditioners, air coolers, and small kitchen appliances. Appliances now make up most of Cellecor’s revenue and remain its main growth driver.
Revenue targets of Rs 1,800 to 2,000 crore
Since launching the Cellecor brand in 2017, the company has grown from Rs 19 crore in revenue to about Rs 1,292 crore in FY26. PAT margins improved from around 0.5 percent to 3.1 percent over the same period.
The team has grown from four employees to more than 425, backed by over 1,500 distributors, close to one lakh retail touchpoints, and around 2,000 service centres across India.
Agarwal expects revenue of Rs 1,800 to 2,000 crore this year, with a target of Rs 5,000 crore from the Indian market over the next three years. E-commerce is part of that plan too, with a target of nearly Rs 1,000 crore in online revenue over three years, backed by a more premium product lineup for urban shoppers.
Why Africa, and why now
Cellecor has raised Rs 300 crore through FCCBs to fund its first international manufacturing facility, in Liberia. The plant is expected to be operational by the end of 2026, with commercial production starting shortly after.
The facility will manufacture Smart TVs, washing machines, air conditioners, air coolers, smartphones, feature phones, tablets, audio products, and small kitchen appliances, making it one of Cellecor’s largest manufacturing investments outside India.
Agarwal’s reasoning for Africa is simple. “Africa today resembles the Indian consumer electronics market of 10 to 15 years ago," he said. “It has a rapidly growing population, rising purchasing power and increasing demand for consumer technology products."
There’s a practical case too. Local manufacturing brings lower logistics costs, tax efficiencies, and easier access to neighbouring markets. With a population of over 1.5 billion and rising urbanisation, Africa fits the same model Cellecor built its India business on, affordable technology for a large, aspirational population.
“We believe Cellecor is among the first Indian consumer electronics brands to establish a manufacturing facility in the region, positioning us strongly for future expansion," Agarwal said.
Rs 10,000 crore target
Cellecor expects its African business to generate around Rs 450 crore in revenue in its first year, with potential to scale to Rs 1,500 to 2,000 crore over the next two to three years. The Liberia project is also expected to create more than 200 jobs in its initial phase.
Combined with its India targets, Cellecor is now working towards a consolidated revenue target of Rs 10,000 crore, with Africa positioned as a core growth engine, not a side bet.
Asked about his early confidence to enter such a competitive industry, Agarwal pointed back to his school and college years, when he was already selling consumer electronics. That early exposure, he says, gave him an understanding of customer behaviour and market demand long before Cellecor existed. Fifteen years on, that instinct has taken him from a shop counter in Delhi to a factory floor in Liberia.
Source: News18
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