Home Tech Looks For A Higher Ceiling

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. 

For Savant, the challenge is therefore not to put sophisticated technology inside a beautiful shell. The visible product and the engineering underneath have to work together. 

The same principle applies at XSCACE, although the desired outcome is almost the opposite.

When The Best Technology Is Technology You Don’t See

“The room should come before the specification,” said Utkarsh Hora, founder of XSCACE, an architectural-audio startup that makes in-wall and in-ceiling speakers. 

The startup’s speakers can be installed inside walls or ceilings, or matched to the finish of the space. The idea is to preserve the visual language of a room without compromising on audio. 

Hora believes this matters because consumers who have already invested heavily in marble, cabinetry, lighting and furniture are less willing to accept a conventional speaker box simply because it delivers good sound.

In that sense, design-led home technology is developing along two seemingly opposite paths.

Some brands want technology to stand out, turning the fan or appliance into a statement piece. 

Others want it to blend in, making speakers, controls and other hardware part of the architecture. 

And then there are products such as Karban’s Aizrone that try to reduce the number of objects altogether by combining multiple functions. 

The common thread is not necessarily aesthetics alone. It is integration. That also explains why these startups are increasingly looking beyond traditional appliance distribution. Integration and design may not be enough to give these companies a lasting competitive advantage. As the category grows, larger appliance and consumer electronic companies could replicate the visual elements of these products and bring them to a wider distribution network.

“Design alone is not a moat. A Havells or a Samsung can copy a finish in eighteen months and outspend you on distribution,” said Singh. 

For Singh, the stronger proposition lies in the combination of brand, customer relationship, product development and distribution, with design acting as the visible layer rather than the entire competitive advantage. 

The Architects Are Getting A Say

For a conventional appliance purchase, the consumer may begin with an ecommerce platform, retailer or brand showroom. 

For integrated home technology, the decision can happen much earlier, when the architect is planning the electrical layout, when the interior designers are deciding the ceiling treatment or when the walls and wiring are still on paper. 

That makes architects and interior designers an important channel for the emerging category. 

Around 40% of NUOS’ home automation sales come through architect and interior designer referrals or specifications, according to Savant. 

At Karban, the architects and designers channel contributes around 20% of sales. 

For XSCACE, Hora said most projects indirectly come through architects and designers. More importantly, he sees their involvement as critical to getting the product right. 

If an architectural speaker is considered only after a room has been built, the installation becomes a compromise. If it is considered while the ceiling, walls and wiring are still being planned, the technology can be integrated into the space from the beginning. 

This makes architects and interior designers more than a sales channel. They can become the gatekeepers of a product category that needs to be specified before the consumer is ready to buy it. 

It also gives these brands a different route to scale. 

A designer who understands a product and has successfully specified it for one project can potentially bring it into subsequent projects. Both Karban and XSCACE say they are investing in these relationships, while NUOS sees designers as an important bridge between homeowner expectations and choices around automation, finishes and usability. 

From Premium Home To Everyday Home

For now, the proposition remains most visible in homes where consumers are already spending significantly on interiors. But the founders do not see premium positioning as the end point. 

Hora compares the trajectories with flush switches, hidden lighting and modular kitchen, features that began as premium additions before becoming more common in well designed homes.

Investors see a similar trajectory for design led home technology, with premiumisation acting as the starting point rather than the ceiling.

“It’s premiumisation first, and the larger market follows,” says Singh. “Design-led is the wedge, not the ceiling.”

He compares the opportunity with premium smartphones, where higher priced products initially served a narrower consumer base before financing and wider distribution helped expand the category. “The affluent design conscious buyer is the proof of demand, not the addressable market,” he says.

Bansal draws a parallel with BLDC fans, which moved from being a relatively premium product to a far more mainstream category. 

But moving design led home technology beyond affluent consumers will require more than simply reducing prices. 

The products have to become easier to discover, install and maintain. Consumers need to understand why they should buy them. Architects and interior designers need to become familiar with specifying them. And the technology still has to deliver enough functional value to justify the purchase. 

For NUOS, that means affordable entry points, simple installation, interoperability and accessible service. For Karban, manufacturing scale, offline presence and reliable installation will be important. XSCACE sees greater consumer awareness, more trained designers and lower prices as prerequisites for wider adoption. 

The bigger questions, then, is whether design can become more than a premium layer in India’s home tech market. 

These brands are making a case that it can. But the real test will be whether consumers eventually see a well designed appliance, an integrated speaker or a smart switch not as an upgrade to the home, but as a basic part of how the home itself is designed.

For now, India’s home tech startups are trying to close the gap between the technology inside  a home and the way the home is meant to look and feel.

SPOTLIGHT | Inside Peep Beauty’s Eye-First Beauty Play

• BPC brand Peep Beauty is focused on eye makeup and coloured contact lenses, with products spanning daily-wear lenses and matte and metallic liquid eyeshadows, positioned as combining beauty with eye-focused functionality. 
• The brand operates through its D2C website, with coloured lenses priced at ₹399 a pair and liquid eyeshadows priced between ₹799 and ₹849.
• Its lenses are designed for Indian eyes, offering 57% water content, UV protection and daily disposable use, while its eyeshadows feature skincare-infused formulas.

ECOMMERCE BUZZ

• Amazon’s Quick Commerce Push: Amazon India plans to invest $3 Bn in its quick-commerce business Amazon Now by 2030, with $1 Bn earmarked by 2027-end. The company will expand dark stores, strengthen technology and deploy AI for demand prediction.
• Rio Health’s Funding Boost: Rio Health has raised $4.5 Mn in pre-Series A funding to expand its 30-minute pharmacy network across Delhi NCR. The startup plans to add 12 dark stores, strengthen its tech stack and target ₹150 Cr+ ARR within 9–12 months.
• FSSAI Cracks Down: FSSAI has penalised Amazon, BigBasket, Flipkart, Swiggy Instamart and Zepto over alleged food safety and regulatory violations, including misleading claims and non-compliant product information, amid growing scrutiny of quick-commerce dark stores.
• Furlenco Joins IPO Queue: Furlenco is reportedly planning a ₹1,000–1,200 Cr IPO in FY28 at a targeted valuation of around ₹7,000 Cr. The furniture rental startup, which turned profitable in FY25, saw revenue rise 61.9% YoY to ₹370.4 Cr in FY26.
• Snapdeal Parent Heads For IPO: Snapdeal parent AceVector has set a ₹30–₹32 price band for its ₹420 Cr IPO, targeting a ₹1,741 Cr valuation. After raising ₹189 Cr from anchor investors, the company is set to list on the NSE and BSE on October 5. 

The Deep Dive

The Operator Question

What does it take to turn a design-led product into a category?

We reached out to Karan Bansal, founder and CEO of Karban, to understand the playbook, while also drawing on the experiences of NUOS and XSCACE.

Prove The Premium: Design can get consumers interested, but the product still needs to deliver enough functional value to justify the price. For karban, that means combining design with air purification and circulation. For NUOS, it means pairing aesthetics with reliability, ease of use and after sales support. 

Make it Easy To Discover And Install: Consumers need to understand why these products are different, while architects and interior designers need to be familiar with specifying them. For integrated home technology, the buying decision often starts before the home is finished. 

Build The Designer Channel: Architects and interior designers already influence a meaningful share of sales for these brands. Making the products easy to specify can help them move from being an individual purchase to becoming part of the home design process. 

Bring Down The Barriers: Wider adoption will require lower prices, simpler installation, broader service networks and more accessible products. NUOS points to affordable entry points and interoperability, while Karban sees manufacturing scale and offline presence as important. SXCACE, meanwhile, sees consumer awareness and a larger network of trained designers are prerequisites for expansion. 

Make Design More Than Aesthetic: The long-term proposition cannot rest on appearance alone. As the category grows, larger appliance and consumer electronics companies could replicate visual elements and bring them to a wider distribution network. The opportunity, therefore, is to combine design with functionality, brand, distribution and a product experience that is harder to replicate.

Edited By Nikhil Subramaniam
Creatives: Abhyam Gusai

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