India’s diversity is not only visible in the varied religions, traditions, and ethnicity, but also in its contrasting economic strata. On one hand, it sustains the average Indian populace earning in chump change, for whom owning a smartphone is still a matter of contemplation, and on the other hand, it lures a chic contemporary youth upgrading to latest mobile models every year. Eyeing this disparity as an opportunity, refurbishment market came into being endowing the best of all worlds- cost-effectiveness, quality service, warranty, and eco-friendly solutions. Taking forward this lead is a Hyderabad-based Ikon Technologies India (P) Ltd which operates brand, ‘Minte’, a top-tier open-box and pre-owned electronics seller and an exceptional re-commerce venture. Parading a pantheon of top-performing mobile brands, the company has become a preferred seller delivering mint condition electronics, truly justifying its brand name.

Founded in 2015 with an aspiration to deliver high-value pre-owned products, Minte is one of the biggest players in India dealing with around

It is a completely bootstrapped organization and does business with over 1000 small retailers and 50+ India’s leading wholesale partners in its sales and distribution channel

40,000 phones per month on an average; thanks to its experienced founding team and an extremely professional middle management. Minte is probably the only refurbishment company which has talent from IIMs and other leading management institutes. It is a completely bootstrapped organization and does business with over 1000 small retailers and 50+ India’s leading wholesale partners in its sales and distribution channel.“If the retailers don’t trust us in terms of our quality, price, or model mix, then they won’t approach us again; which has rarely happened with us. Good quality at affordable prices with a vast variety is what we bring to the table,” elucidates Ramana Reddy, Co-Founder & Director, Minte. It sells across channels (wholesale, retail, direct & institutional) and quality conditions (No check, Basic condition check and full quality check). The company ensures quality by adapting a stringent quality check methodology, where every mobile goes through a 65 point comprehensive check by engineers before its ready for sale. A three-point (On/Off, Touch & Display) and a seven-point

(network,speaker, ringer, and others) checks are also done as per the partner requirements. Minte has a proprietary app that can diagnose 21 crucial functionality of an Android smartphones assuring quality.

Endowing Enhanced Performance
Over a crore smartphones are sold every month in India and the replacement cycles (changing existing phone with a new one) have reduced to less than a year giving a high growth opportunity to the refurbished sector that is mostly unorganized. Minte is headstrong in using the opportunity to its best and making it more organized by rendering dedicated services across channels PAN India. To do so, Minte has partnered with various e-Commerce companies and large format retail outlets to source used smartphones. It recently acquired another company in the refurbishment space, thus giving an extra feather to its wings.Minte has developed its own technologies such as mobile phone diagnostic application, an ERP system to ensure tracking of every complexity related to pre-owned mobile phones and a Sourcing application integrated with pricing algorithm.

Currently standing at Rs.100 crore revenue mark in just three years of its inception, the company is working on strengthening its key areas akin to its ability to procure the right products, continuous process to enhance its capability in repair and refurbishment space while spreading its sales capability to reach across retailers, wholesalers and end consumers.