Beyond TVs And Projectors, Lumio Confirms New Products Are In The Works

Just over a year after entering India's smart TV market, Bengaluru-based startup Lumio is already looking beyond televisions and projectors. The company has confirmed that it is actively evaluating new product categories as part of its long-term plan to become a complete home entertainment brand, although it is not yet ready to reveal what those products will be. In an exclusive interaction with Times Now Tech, Raghu Reddy, CEO of Circuit House Technologies and Kailash Sankaranarayanan, Co-Founder & COO, the company behind the Lumio brand, confirmed company's ambitions go far beyond its current product lineup."We definitely want to become a trusted home entertainment brand. Of course, we have tackled a couple of categories in the home entertainment space,

but we believe there are a few other categories as well," Reddy said.The comments come just 13 months after Lumio entered the Indian market with its smart TVs. The startup has since expanded into smart projectors and recently released Project Neo, an AI-powered content discovery feature that lets users search for movies and shows through WhatsApp and Instagram. While Lumio has not confirmed which category it will enter next, Reddy stressed that the company is constantly studying products where it believes it can improve the overall user experience."As a group, we keep evaluating a lot of different products, trying to figure out where there is a category where the existing solutions don't give the most optimal experience according to us. If there's a way for us to bring in a better experience, that's how we evaluate all these categories," he said."You can be assured that we are working on a bunch of things. Hopefully, when the time is right, you'll hear about it from us," Reddy added. When asked if any major launches are planned in the coming months, Reddy remained cautious but confirmed that development work is underway."We're working on stuff. We are definitely working on things. It's just that sometimes it ends up taking a lot more time than what you envisage, especially in hardware. Once we're ready, we'll come back and talk about them," he said.Lumio has seen strong growth in its first year. The company says it has crossed Rs 100 crore in gross merchandise value (GMV) in just over 13 months since it started selling its products. It also claims to be one of the fastest-growing direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands in India's premium smart TV market.The company says its focus has been on solving common problems faced by smart TV users, including slow performance and content discovery. Those efforts have led to products such as its fast-performing smart TVs, the TLDR content discovery platform, and the recently launched AI-powered Project Neo. Project Neo And The Future Of AI TV Speaking about AI-powered TVs, Sankaranarayanan, told Times Now Tech that AI should make TVs easier to use, not just add another buzzword."I think the phrase AI TV has not been used in the right manner until now. A lot of everything gets tagged with AI and it's not just TVs, it's across all devices. The way we think about it is that there are multiple friction points in how people use TVs today. Things as simple as using a remote or voice are not really seamless experiences," Sankaranarayanan said.According to him, the real purpose of AI in TVs is to make the viewing experience simpler by removing everyday friction."The way we see AI transforming TVs is that it becomes a conversation. You don't need to change how you normally interact. You simply ask the AI assistant, and it does things for you on the TV. That is the biggest shift in the TV experience that's about to happen. Hopefully, we're among the first to bring this to TVs," he said.On Project Neo, Sankaranarayanan said that the company launched Project Neo to bring an authentic AI layer that helps people find content faster.""Our objective has always been to give consumers the best possible TV experience. One of the biggest pain points is finding something to watch. It can take anywhere between 20 and 40 minutes. The sole objective of TLDR is to help people find things really fast. Project Neo bridges the gap between discovering content and actually watching it. We've always tried to identify areas where customers are underserved. Slow TVs were one problem, and content discovery was another. Project Neo is built around solving those problems," he explained. When asked if AI could eventually make TV remotes obsolete, Sankaranarayanan said he does not see that happening anytime soon. However, he added that AI will improve the overall user experience by handling more complex searches and interactions, while the remote will continue to be useful for basic functions such as changing the volume and navigating the TV.Projectors Can Replace A Second TVSpeaking about the projector business, Raghu Reddy said the company believes smart projectors can become a strong alternative to a second TV in many homes.""People who are buying a second TV for their home, instead of buying a second TV, they're buying a projector. Because, hey, why not get a bigger screen experience?. We are now positioning projectors as a real alternative to TVs," he said. Reddy also said that Lumio became India's fastest-growing Google TV projector brand in India."We launched the products in July last year. In the first six to nine months itself, we very quickly became the number one Google TV projector brand in the country. "A lot of youngsters, especially college students living in hostels, are buying projectors because they want a big-screen experience that they can enjoy together," he noted.