Audientes ramps up commercial operations in India

Audientes A/S has further established our business operations in India with our first key hire in the region. Raman Rao has taken on the role as our new Country Head, India and will be responsible for ramping up our commercial business there, with a particular focus on the establishment of key distributor and retail agreements, channel management and key account management.

Based in Hyderabad, the capital of Southern India’s Telangana state, which is a major center for the technology industry, Raman is no stranger to Audientes, having been in dialogue with us regularly in recent years. Having formerly developed the India business operations for large international hearing aid firms, he has several decades of hands-on sales and business development experience. Raman has also played a key role in the setting up and coordination of the user testing of the Audientes self-fitting hearing aid, planned for market launch in the second half of 2021. The India market testing, co-funded by the Danish Market Development Fund, aims to test the comfort, wearability and usability of our self-fitting hearing aid.

“I am extremely proud to be part of this ground-breaking and disruptive solution,” says Raman. “There are so many things about the Audientes device that I believe will resonate with the Indian market. In particular, the ‘test, fit and go’ concept, coupled with price and quality, is a never-before-seen approach here in India, or elsewhere for that matter. What’s more, the design is a key selling point here, due to the unfortunate stigma that often goes hand-in-hand with wearing hearing aids in this part of the world. The Audientes hearing aid is designed to look like a headset, and this really addresses the stigma people face here. It quite simply checks all the boxes and I’m thrilled to be a part of rolling it out to the people who most need it.”

The senior leadership team is also delighted to welcome Raman to the team. According to Audientes CEO, Steen Thygesen, bringing onboard an industry veteran like Raman as Country Head, India is the first in a number of key steps to successfully penetrating the Indian market.

“India holds massive potential for us with over 60 million people today suffering from disabling hearing loss. We know that our self-fitting and affordable hearing aid is the right solution for most of these people. Having Raman working with us to further Audientes mission in India, by developing the critical partnership with distributors and retailers, is a vital step in that direction.”