Deepak Kabu joins Ziox Mobiles as CEO

NEW DELHI: Intex Technologies general manager Deepak Kabu has joined Ziox Mobiles as its chief executive officer, becoming the second top-level executive to leave the No 3 smartphone player in India in past weeks.

At Ziox Mobiles, Kabu’s role will be to increase the brand’s presence in the market, having more than two decades of experience in distribution, marketing and sales.

“I am confident that Deepak will steer the Ziox Mobiles team in the right direction and carve our rightful position in the Indian telecommunications market,” Vikas Jain, managing director of Ziox Mobiles said, confirming the development.

Amid growing competition in the domestic market, Intex’s old hand and head of product, Sudhir Kumar, recently moved to Itel, a top brand of African major Transsion Holdings, as chief executive officer.

Delhi-based Ziox started operations in India last year with feature phones and smartphones. The company plans to invest Rs 500 crore to set up an assembling unit in Delhi's Peeragarhi area. Plans include seven-eight assembling lanes which will have a capacity of producing 500,000-600,000 devices per month.

The company will partner with a Chinese vendor and set up another four assembling units by the end of December 2016. Ziox will also set up a research and development centre (R&D) in Delhi while it charts out global markets such as Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, East Africa and Russia this year.

Ziox had said late last year that it is also planning to set up its own ecommerce portal through which it will sell high-end smartphones.