Family Zone Cyber Safety to access hundreds of millions of customers in India

Kids online safety specialist Family Zone Cyber Safety (ASX: FZO) will enter the Indian market in partnership with the British multinational Vodafone Group and the Indian consumer electronics company Micromax.

The Australian security specialist, which provides blanket cybersecurity across a family’s range of devices, is set to be a leading provider of cybersafety solutions in the South Asian country with the deal expected to be launched commercially in the December 2018 financial quarter.

Family Zone will ensure its mobile app is embedded in every device sold by Micromax with the Android operating system — some 30 million devices a year, based on current sales levels.

Micromax will in turn promote the app at its 125,000 outlets in India.

The deal will considerably extend the reach of the company’s service which is due to be rolled out to all TCL Corporation’s Alcatel Android devices in Australia and New Zealand next month.

Vodafone India, which has more than 430 million subscribers in the South Asian country, will also sell Family Zone’s system.

The British giant will package the system into some premium service bundles for customers in India and sell the system as a value-added system for a fee.

Both prepaid and postpaid customers will be able to access the system.

Family Zone managing director Tim Levy described India as an important strategic market for the company and a country where parents shared the cyber-age concerns of parents across the world.

“We are proud and delighted that both Vodafone and Micromax have selected Family Zone as their cyber safety provider of choice in the large and dynamic Indian market,” he said. “Reaching agreement with a Vodafone entity, one of the leading and largest telecom groups in the world, is a major acknowledgement of our company and our vision. Reaching agreement with Micromax continues our drive to embed cyber safety and access to the Family Zone ecosystem everywhere our children access the internet.”

Mr Levy said he was excited about future opportunities this collaboration could lead to with other Vodafone Group entities and other partners in the Indian marketplace.

India has more than 1.3 billion consumers and a middle class of more than 250 million people which has rapidly taken up new technologies, putting online users at risk of cyber threats.

Family Zone takes a partnership approach and aims to provide a multifaceted, ecosystem solution to web users. Utilising a strategic alliance with Fidelio Partners, the listed company has signed on industry leaders such as Telkomsel for the Indonesian market, Smart Communications (for the Philippines), Maxis (Malaysia) and leading global handset manufacturer Alcatel.

The company’s latest collaboration, announced four days ago, is with Netsweeper, a filtering services provider for enterprises, which has over 500 million registered devices on its platforms.

Family Zone securities were up 8% to A$0.54 by late morning.