Asin's Husband, Rahul Sharma Turned Down More Than Rs. 6,500 Cr Funding, Says 'We Thought That If..'

Asin Thottumkal got married to Rahul Sharma, the founder of Micromax, in 2016. While the actress has been out of the public eye, fans remain eager to know about her whereabouts. However, it appears that the actress is enjoying her private life, and her husband, Rahul, provides the fans with some insight into their lives every once in a while.

Micromax founder, Rahul revealed he once rejected a multi-million dollar deal

Asin's husband and co-founder of Micromax recently sat for a conversation with Nikhil Kamath on his podcast. During their chat, Rahul revealed that two years before he and Asin got married, he witnessed incredible, unprecedented success as an entrepreneur. The businessman shared that his mobile phone company was challenging the biggest players in the Indian market, and beating them. So much so that they never thought they would need to outsource the funds. However, things turned around when Chinese brands entered the Indian market.

During the chat, Rahul Sharma revealed that when Meizu was rising, they were already deep down with Alibaba. He shared that in 2014, his company even raised 800 million US dollars, which converts to approximately Rs. 6,700 crores as per 2025 conversion rates. However, there was so much revenue already that they thought that they wouldn't need the funds. He was quoted as saying: 

"When Meizu was raising a round with Alibaba, we were deep down with them at that time. This was in 2014. We were raising around 800 million US dollars. The business was throwing so much cash that we said,'‘We don't need money.' We didn’t take that money, we were like, 'We're doing quite well, and we already have so much of.'"

In the same conversation, Rahul Sharma revealed that, in hindsight, it was a bad decision on their end. He explained that once the Chinese players entered the market, something they didn't anticipate happened. Not only did those brands undercut Micromax's prices, but suppliers stopped providing them with the latest components. He was quoted as saying:

"We thought that if we’d taken care of the Finnish and the Koreans at that time, we could take care of the Chinese too… That was a different game because when the Chinese came, they came with so much gunpowder."

Rahul Sharma revealed what got him to pivot from his decision 

Rahul Sharma revealed that they took a massive hit the same year he and Asin got married. However, three years later, he knew he had to pivot if they wanted to stay in the game. He shared that it was at that moment they decided they would stop burning money and wait for things to change. He added that he then realised that he should have taken the money because it doesn't take long for time to change. He was quoted as saying:

"If we keep burning at this pace, we’ll get completely finished, we won’t have any capital left. We said, 'Let's stop burning money and wait for a U-turn'… If you ask me, in hindsight, yes (we should’ve taken it). Because of that time, we never knew you had to create a war chest. With 800 million US dollars, you sit on the casino table and say, 'Now play.'"

What are your thoughts on Rahul Sharma's revelation? Let us know.

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