Brands
Soon to be erstwhile, Philips Lighting launches IoT platform in India
BENGALURU: After dilution of its stake to less than majority by Royal Philips in Philips Lighting, the latter lost its Philips moniker to be renamed as Signify. This change is set to happen in the India subsidiary also, starting 1 January 2019 – the start of Philips group companies financial year. However, the new company will very much continue selling Philips branded products. Signify (the erstwhile Philips Lighting), the world leader in lighting, today launched its new Internet of Things (IoT) platform, called Interact in India, which will enable its professional customers to unlock the full potential of connected lighting for the IoT. The platform delivers new insights to help customers drive operational efficiencies and take more effective decisions. It also supports the company’s strategy to deliver new data-enabled services as value expands from lighting products and systems to services.
Launching the platform in India, Signify’s operations in India vice chairman and managing director Sumit Padmakar Joshi said, “First, we led the way in energy efficient LED lighting, then in connecting lighting to deliver operational benefits for our customers. Now that light points are smart enough to collect data on their performance and the environment around them, we are tapping into that intelligence. By analysing the data from our connected lights, devices and systems, our goal is to create safer cities, energy efficient buildings and industries and smarter retail stores in the country. We are confident that this platform will deliver immense value for our professional lighting customers in India”.
In addition, data from authorised third-parties can also be analysed by Interact. For example, for a municipal authority, news articles and social media posts, reacting to a new lighting installation on a bridge, can be analysed and data sent to a social impact app dashboard that summarises the public sentiment.
Signify has already installed 29 million connected light points worldwide and plans for every new LED product it produces to be connectable by 2020 says a company press release. Potential users include complete cities – and Signify says that it has been involved in more than 1,000 smart projects including cities across the world, business, malls, sports arenas, even one’s own home. Available now are:
Interact Office – enables you to turn your office into a smart sustainable workspace with software that allows you to increase building efficiency and employee productivity.
Interact City – helps improve street lighting, safety, reduce energy consumption, improve efficiency and support your sustainability goals and beautify the urban landscape across roads.
Interact Retail – enables customers to group, zone and schedule connected lighting to create stopping power in stores. It also supports in-store location-based marketing services to increase shopper engagement and indoor navigation to improve staff productivity.
Interact Landmark – aids in managing and triggering light shows with dynamic architectural lighting to help increase tourism, regenerate downtown areas, and stimulate commerce.
Interact Sports – aids in monitoring, managing and coordinating across all lighting infrastructure from a single dashboard from pitch lighting, entertainment light shows, hospitality areas and exterior architectural lighting.
Interact Pro – an intuitive cloud-based software for small and medium enterprises that automates lighting and allows management via the Interact Pro dashboard.
Most of the selling will be on a B2B basis using case studies of previous installations. The global market potential is huge – an estimated 300 billion light points says Joshi.
The home segment has a potential of fifty percent of the new business – while Interact is more of a B2B platform, for the home user, Philips has already launched a brand – Philips Hue. To that effect the company had initiated a 360 degree mass media communications campaign earlier that included a TVC that featured Bollywood actors Ranbir Singh and Shruti Hasan. At present its brand communication is skewed towards print, the 180 Philips Light Lounges, BTL activities and the internet. Signify/Philips Lighting India plans to come up with another campaign in the first quarter of its fiscal 2019 revealed Signify/Philips Lighting India chief marketing manager Sukanto Aich towww.indiantelevision.com. Lowe handled the creative work, while Hawas the media buying.
Brands
Dabur buys minority stake in Ras Beauty for Rs 60 crore
Dabur Ventures deal backs fast-growing luxury skincare brand
MUMBAI: Dabur India Limited has dipped into the world of luxury skincare, signing a definitive agreement to acquire a minority stake in Ras Beauty Private Limited for Rs 60 crore. The investment marks the first bet from Dabur Ventures, the FMCG major’s Rs 500 crore platform set up in October 2025 to back high-potential, new-age direct-to-consumer brands.
Founded in Raipur by Shubhika Jain, her sister Suramya Jain and their mother Sangeeta Jain, Ras Beauty has grown from a family-led passion project into a fast-scaling “Farm-to-Face” skincare label. Its range of face elixirs, serums and moisturisers blends essential oils with nature-derived actives, striking a balance between botanical purity and laboratory precision.
The numbers tell their own story. Ras has clocked a three-year Cagr of around 75 per cent and an annual run rate of approximately Rs 100 crore, all while maintaining strong gross margins. That growth has been fuelled by a digital-first approach, in-house R&D and manufacturing, and a sharp focus on clean, sustainable sourcing.
Dabur India executive director and group head corporate strategy Abhinav Dhall, said the company was drawn to Ras’s distinct positioning at the intersection of nature, science and luxury. He added that the premium beauty segment is poised for robust expansion over the coming decade, and that Ras is well placed to capture that opportunity.
For Ras, the partnership is as much about scale as it is about shared philosophy. Co-founder and CEO Shubhika Jain said Dabur’s 141-year legacy of building trusted, purpose-led brands makes it a natural ally. The capital infusion, she noted, will help accelerate the brand’s omnichannel footprint, deepen research capabilities and invest in team and brand building, with an eye on establishing Ras as a leading Indian luxury skincare name both domestically and overseas.
With this move, Dabur is not just investing in a skincare label. It is placing an early wager on India’s growing appetite for premium, conscious beauty, and signalling that heritage FMCG players are ready to play in the new-age D2C arena.
