Smridhi Goyal and her husband Amit founded Sekyo in 2019 to market GPS-enabled smartwatches with location-based tracking. The watches cost Rs 2,500 to Rs 8,000 and include several tracking and parental settings.
Smridhi Goyal, a mother of two, took her kid to a carnival in Delhi a few years ago. She eventually lost sight of her daughter for a brief period of time. The mother’s entire life, though, was flipped upside down in those brief moments.
This incidence drove Smridhi to seek a remedy that may assist parents in ensuring the security of their kids. As Smridhi started researching child safety, she became acutely aware of the urgent need for a device that would enable parents to always be aware of where their children were.
The National Crime Bureau of India reports that a kid is reported missing in India every eight minutes.
We (Smridhi and her husband Amit Goyal) recognized the needs and wants of other parents who were seeking for secure technologies to safeguard the protection of their children because we are parents of two young daughters. This is when Sekyo entered the picture, according to Smridhi, co-founder and CEO of Sekyo, in an interview with YourStory.
Sekyo, a firm that sells a variety of GPS-enabled smartwatches with location-based monitoring, was established by the Goyals in 2019. The Goyals want to enable parents to follow their children’s locations in real time, wherever they are, and keep in touch with them using Sekyo.
Aspects of Sekyo:
The watches made by Sekyo feature a wide range of tracking options and parental settings. According to Smridhi, the watches are SIM-enabled, enabled by an app on the parent’s or guardian’s smartphone, and function as full phones on their own.
Location tracking, two-way voice calling between the kid and parents/guardians, parental monitoring, school mode, and an SOS button are among the features of the basic watch. Geofencing, video calling, texting, remote monitoring, remote health monitoring, watch removal alarms, live battery status, and several more parental control functions are additional features of sophisticated watches.
According to Smridhi, one can limit who can contact the watch in order to increase the child’s security. She continues, “We are determined that historic data does not get stored in the cloud and have also kept the security of others in mind.”
Sekyo offers three variations and seven SKUs, with prices ranging from Rs 2,500 to Rs 8,000 depending on the features. The timepieces are covered by a 12-month warranty.
According to Smridhi, the timepieces are tough and water resistant, two qualities necessary for a child’s product.
Neha Oberoi, a single mother, holds down a full-time job. She claims that the watch makes it easier to monitor her child’s location when she is picked up, left off at school, and brought home at night. According to Neha, the watch’s remote alarm and monitoring capabilities provide her peace of mind that her child will be secure even when she is not around.
Details of features
The geofence has a 200-meter minimum radius. Users who enter and leave the fence set off an alarm, and the parent is notified.
Remote monitoring: The remote photo option calls the watch so that parents can hear the ambient noises, while the remote sound option provides a real-time image of the child’s surroundings to parents. Three cell numbers may be added to the emergency dial thanks to the SOS function.
When the watch is in school mode, the child can only use it to check the time, but parents may track the whereabouts of their children. Parents may check their children’s temperature, blood pressure, and heart rate with the health monitoring tool. In order to track steps, some watches additionally have pedometers.
Growth of Sekyo:
In addition to its own website, Sekyo watches are sold on online and offline markets including Tata Croma, Reliance Digital, FirstCry, Amazon, Flipkart, Hamleys, and Little Tags. Currently, e-commerce accounts for around 90% of sales, with the remaining 20% coming from offline channels and exhibits.
Last year, Sekyo brought in 12 crores of rupees. About 35,000 timepieces have been sold through it thus far. According to Smridhi, the firm is seeing a 20% rise in its user base month over month.
The parts are sourced from Hong Kong, China, and Canada, and the items are assembled in India. “We are now looking for resources to support the ‘Make in India’ campaign. In the next years, we aim to be able to manufacture these items entirely in India, according to the CEO of Sekyo.
The Sekyo app has been downloaded more than 50,000 times and is accessible on both iOS and Google Play.
Market and future plans:
The market for children’s smartwatches was estimated to be worth $957 million globally in 2020 and is projected to increase to $2643.1 million by 2027, increasing at a CAGR of 15.5%.
In its field, the business faces rivals including the Swedish company One4Tech, the Chinese company Wearfit Champ, and the Indian companies WatchOut Wearables and Turett. According to Smridhi, Sekyo’s smart watches provide a variety of features that set them apart from the competitors.
By the end of the month and by the end of the year, Sekyo expects to have more than 50,000 subscribers and generate Rs 20 crore in income. The business also has expansion ambitions for its product line and is working on pet trackers and wearables for senior people with Alzheimer’s.
