Home Tech Looks For A Higher Ceiling

by · Inc42

SUMMARY

  • Indian home tech brands are designing appliances for the room, not just the function, but turning aesthetics into a mainstream category will require more than good looks
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A homeowner can spend anywhere between a few weeks to a couple of months deciding the right marble for the living room, the finish of the cabinetry and the lighting for a new home. All of these are just as important as the property itself for the new homeowner. But once the room is ready, there is one thing that still looks visibly out of place: the technology that powers this home. 

A speaker mounted on a finished wall, a purifier occupying a corner or a conventional fan hanging beneath an elaborate false ceiling can suddenly look less like a functional necessity and more like a visual compromise. 

A new crop of Indian home tech brands is betting that consumers are increasingly unwilling to make that compromise. 

From designer ceiling fans and integrated air purifiers to speakers that disappear into walls and premium switch panels designed as part of their interior, these brands are trying to change the role technology plays inside the home. The idea is no longer simply to make an appliance work better, or, in some cases, disappear altogether. 

“For a long time appliances in India were brought on spec sheet and price. Nobody really cared how a fan or a purifier looked,” said Karan Bansal, founder and CEO of Karban.

Jaipur-based Karban is a design led home appliance startup that makes fans and air purification products that are designed to integrate into the home rather than stand out from it.

The equation, he believes, is changing as consumers spend more on their homes. 

Jivraj Singh, General Partner at Indian Silicon Valley, sees the shift play out among founders approaching the firm. He attributes it to three forces: homes becoming more personal after COVID, social media narrowing the gap between global design trends and Indian consumers, and rising spending at the aspirational end of the market. 

“Homes got personal after COVID, people started treating the home as an expression of who they are, not just a shelter,” he says. “Instagram collapsed the gap between what a home in Milan looks like and what a couple in Indore wants theirs to look like,” he adds.

False ceilings, planned lighting and professional interior design are becoming part of the home building process, particularly for consumers renovating or building new homes. Once so much attention has gone into the space, Bansal says, consumers increasingly do not want a conventional appliance to disrupt it. 

The shift is visible across categories. Fanzart and Magnific are turning ceiling fans into design elements, while Karban is combining air purification, air circulation and lighting into a single ceiling mounted product. XSCACE is making architectural audio that blends into walls and ceiling, while NUOS is bringing the same thinking to switches and home automation. Newer players such as Noctics Labs and Glazonoid are taking the idea further into smart controls, lighting and home decor. 

The products are different. The underlying consumer expectation is increasingly similar: technology should belong in the home, not merely be placed inside it.

Technology Has To Earn Its Place

For Karban, the opportunity emerged from a practical problem. A relative’s apartment had a low ceiling, but the available fans were either unsuitable or visually intrusive. That led the company to develop a bladeless ceiling fan. 

The startup then found another problem with conventional air purifiers. Most sit in a corner, creating a relatively small zone of clean air, while the purifier’s own sensor can indicate improved air quality around the device.

Karban’s response was to combine purification with air circulation and move the product to the ceiling. Its Airzone range combines the two functions, with some variants also adding lighting. 

That combination is important because it changes the price conversation. 

Karban’s products range from around ₹15,000 to ₹37,000.  A conventional ceiling fan can cost only a few thousand rupees, making the headline premium significant. But Bansal argues that the relevant comparison for a customer is not a fan against another fan. It is the cost of a purifier, a designer fan and a light fixture, three products that Airzone seeks to combine into one ceiling point. 

“Design alone won’t justify a premium in India. Design plus function will,” Bansal said. 

That distinction runs through the category. 

At NUOS, the product is a switch panel, but the proposition extends beyond its appearance. The startup combines glass touch panels and premium finishes with Zigbee connectivity, DALI lighting control and home automation capabilities. 

“The control panel is something a homeowner sees and touches every day. It deserves as much design consideration as the lighting or other interior finishes,” said Neil Savant, founder and CEO of NUOS, which makes smart switches, control panels and home automation systems.