Chinese IoT firm Tuya sets up operations in India

Chinese AI (artificial intelligence), IoT (internet of things) solutions developer and hardware maker Tuya has set up headquarters for its India operations in Gurugram, as part of its global expansion plans.

The company expects to use the facility as an IoT smart home experience centre for its customers as well as a base to recruit local talent with IoT, AI and related expertise. It is setting up a local team for its India market, according to a statement.

The company claims to have connected 100 million smart products as of October 2018 while serving 93,000 customers across 200 countries, according to its website. 

Tuya’s main offering is the AI+IoT developer platform dubbed Tuya Smart, which develops software for manufacturers, brands, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and retail chains. The platform also offers hardware access, app development and cloud integration services. Tuya’s solutions are available for IoT products such as lighting, surveillance and environment equipment and appliances.

The company says its AI+IoT based developer model can be integrated with other hardware and software entities. The model is product, protocol, region and supplier agnostic. It has been used in more than 30,000 products.

"The wide use of smartphones and the enthusiasm of Indian consumers adds to our confidence in boosting a global smart way of living and the future of the IoT," said Leo Chen, chairman and president of Tuya, adding that India market has a crucial role to play in today’s highly interconnected world.

“Especially now as Amazon Alexa has started to support Hindi and Tuya is one of their first partners in India," he added.

Tuya’s general manager for Asia-Pacific, Ross Luo, had earlier spoken about the adoption of smart home and IoT India.

"The smart home and IoT revolution have already started in India. We are seeing the online and offline presence of smart products every day now, and brands are very devoted to this new blue ocean of opportunities,” Luo said at the Amazon Alexa Voxcon event at Delhi on September 18.  

Apart from India, Tuya has headquarters in the US, Germany and Japan.