In its second acquisition this fiscal, and the third in about a year, Hero Electronix has bought the India business of Germany-headquartered electronics design services company, TES DST Holding Europe.
According to senior spokespersons, this is aligned with Hero Electronix’s strategy of growing through partnerships even as a new division, Tessolve Embedded Systems, is established.
Ujjwal Munjal, Founder-Director, Hero Electronix, said: “With this partnership, Hero Electronix has the expertise to offer sophisticated technological products encompassing embedded software and hardware development for domains like automotive, avionics, transportation, industrial and home automation.
“The acquisition is in line with Hero Electronix’s approach of investing in businesses that are engineering-led and IP-driven.” A maiden venture by the Hero Group in the electronics sector, New Delhi-based Hero Electronix came into existence in 2015 and kicked off its partnership spree buying majority stake in Mybox Technologies, reportedly the country’s leading set-top box manufacturer in mid-2015. That was followed up by its acquiring strategic stake in Bangalore-based Tessolve Semiconductor earlier this year.
The third and latest acquisition was realised through Tessolve Semiconductor, and is aimed at establishing a dedicated electronics system design arm within Hero Electronix.
Heading the IoT wayThe new division, Tessolve Embedded Systems, will support the design and manufacture of innovative electronics products for global companies. This will be accomplished by bringing together comprehensive capabilities in chip design, system design and embedded software available now within Hero Electronix.
In time, spokespersons say, Tesslove Embedded will shape up as an innovation lab focussed on the Internet of Things (IoT) space.
P Raja Manickam, CEO, Tessolve Semiconductor, said, “We are witnessing a growing trend of semiconductor design work shifting to India… While traditionally large product companies have taken advantage of the pool of design talent in India, there are aspiring entrepreneurial product companies as well… Now, Tessolve will be able to provide end-to-end solutions from chip to embedded systems.”
Hero Electronix’s Munjal adds, “This new acquisition means we’ll be able to develop electronic products from scratch… Our idea, going forward, would be to try and build an innovation lab for electronics and IoT start-ups and companies to get their products developed with us.
“Our team will be able to take a product from an idea all the way to industrialisation to an end-product. We think this is where the market is headed, this is what the need of the hour is.”
While the plan is to offer a complete product lifecycle solution to companies growing IP in IoT, Tessolve also intends to strengthen its capabilities in the Analog Chip Design space. Spokespersons say Hero Electronix’s new acquisition via Tessolve will help scale up the company into a $1-billion global digital products and solutions enterprise. And, in order to expand their impact, Hero Electronix and its group companies have planned investments worth ₹1,000-1,200 crore over the next five to seven years.