Homegrown Fire-Boltt will enter the affordable smartphone market with Bolt, targeting the Rs 10,000–15,000 price segment and planning a launch in August. The company said it expects smartphones to become a larger business than its wearables division and intends to introduce two models, one supporting 4G and the other 5G, to suit differing consumer needs. The founders indicated that the initial devices will be assembled domestically through an electronics manufacturing services partner among the country’s top five, and will be distributed via online and offline channels. They also outlined an internal timeline to pursue an initial public offering within two to three years once the brand reaches sufficient scale. The firm said it will invest more than $50 million in the first year, which it estimated to be around Rs 4.75 billion (bn), and has secured component supplies for the next 12 to 18 months to mitigate disruption. Company executives described how global memory prices have risen because of strong demand from artificial intelligence infrastructure, a shift that has prompted several smartphone makers to prioritise higher-margin premium portfolios. Fire-Boltt stated that early procurement and significant investment were intended to preserve launch momentum and to ensure sufficient stock amid constrained supply. The devices will run a proprietary Bolt operating system with a clean user interface and the company said it would avoid overpromising on local design while positioning the phones as designed for India with gradual increases in local value addition. The firm noted that recent price rises have revived demand for value driven 4G devices and that fewer options under Rs 15,000 have been available as component costs have climbed. This, it argued, creates an opening for an Indian brand to offer competitive specifications at accessible prices. Fire-Boltt said it expects to sell between 500,000 and one million smartphones in the initial phase before expanding to models above Rs 15,000 and targeting export markets. The company plans to leverage the government’s production linked incentive scheme to support exports and to scale manufacturing for overseas customers as the business grows.