Bengaluru-based Citadel Intelligent Systems (CIS) is one of the few indegenous players in the connectors industry. The startup has its assembling facility in Bengaluru, which provides specific fibre optics solutions based on customer needs. “Fibre optics is used in telecom, oil and refinery industries, aerospace, automotive and also defence. We believe we can provide our solutions across verticals instead of just one industry,” explains KK Shetty, CEO and managing directo, CIS. It has entered into a strategic agreement with AFL, a subsidiary of US-based Fujikura Ltd for this. The startup also believes that in the coming years, data centre and hyperscale applications are going to increase and ensure more demand for its solutions.
Shetty and two other stakeholders have invested around `21 crore in CIS. As of FY 2017-18, CIS has notched up a revenue of Rs 23.3 crore and expects to become profitable by 2020.
Explaining how the current policies enhance his business today, Shetty says, “We set up this facility under Export Oriented Unit (EOU) scheme. This reduces export and import duties drastically and makes us eligible for some incentives as well. One of the greatest advantages of the ‘Make in India’ initiative is in the aerospace and defence industries. Now, there is a 30% offset for localisation in some form. Since we have the talent and capacity, it helps us to serve these industries locally here in India.” CIS also has collaborations in Israel and has completely automated its processes with SAP integration.
Fresh diploma graduates have been hired by CIS and given training to work with industry grade fibre optic technologies. Shetty believes that this is important as the company plans to scale up in the coming years. With the government’s new data policies focusing more and more on keeping user data within the Indian borders, Shetty says that the growth of data centres in the country will be rapid. Big and small data centres alike will have a growing demand for fibre optic technology that CIS plans to cater. Also, with continuous 4G penetration and the oncoming 5G technology, the need for providing robust infrastructure will also increase. Shetty points out that almost 70% of a mobile network tower must be wired with fibre optic cables for seamless data flow and and strong back-end connectivity. He, therefore, sees a huge market for CIS. Also, applications of fibre optic cables are going to get very specific with increased data carrying capacity and distance—for instance, submarine fibre optic connections between continents or landmasses separated by large water bodies.
Since last October, CIS has also entered the entreprise segment to provide complete communication solutions which includes connectivity with copper as well, enabled by its collaboration with AFL.
Source: financialexpress.com