Swipe Telecom has raised Rs 30 crore from Bangalore-based Kalaari Capital, reports The Economic Times. Swipe intends to use the funding for expansion, research and branding. It has not yet announced whether the investment will be given in tranches or at one go. Swipe had previously raised $10 million from Pune-based Mantra Ventures in July 2012. The company was in in discussions with global Private Equity players to raise an additional $20 million in 2012 but nothing was reported on developments, if any. Swipe Telecom is a California and Pune based mobile technology start-up which makes low cost tablets. It develops tablets and phablets between the price range of Rs 4,000 and Rs 15,000. The company's CEO Shripal Gandhi claims it have 7% of the tablet market share in India. It had tied-up with MTV to sell branded tablets here. Market leaders in this tablet space as of now are Samsung, Micromax and Apple, according to IDC. The report indicates that Swipe's biggest Indian competitor Micromax holds an 8.9% share of the Indian tablet market. In 2010, Micromax, had raised funding from Sequoia and Sandstone Capital; there were also talks that the company was preparing for an IPO. Mobility platform and services has been a core investment theme for Kalaari and is an addition to its mobility portfolio, including Magzter, Apalya, Robosoft and AppsDaily.
