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In 2000, Rahul Sharma and three other co-founders started Micromax Informatics in Gurugram, India, as an IT software venture. Eight years later, the company switched to manufacturing cell phones, focusing on budget feature phones as its core offering. By 2010, Micromax had established a strong foothold in the Indian cell phone market, challenging established giants like Nokia and Samsung.

After initial success, Micromax became the tenth-largest smartphone distributor in the world by 2014. The brand even enlisted Hollywood celebrity Hugh Jackman as its ambassador. Despite such a meteoric rise, the company soon found itself under attack from Chinese competitors such as Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo, which offered low-cost but feature-rich smartphones. As a result, Micromax’s market share fell from 22% in 2014 to around 9% two years later, a period that was also marked by the departure of key employees.

To regain its position, Micromax unveiled a strategy in 2018 to launch around 20 new smartphones over the next two years. The goal is to regain its position in the sub-$15k price segment. While the company continues to struggle against stiff competition from its Chinese counterparts, the growing anti-China sentiment in India presents a unique opportunity for the company to regain its former glory.