 "Audio gear, wearable tech firm boAt raises $60 mn, defers IPO plan")
The parent company of boAt, the audio gear and wearables brand, has raised $60 million from an affiliate of Warburg Pincus, which is its existing shareholder, a private equity fund and new investor Malabar Investments. The firm has deferred its plan for listing.
Imagine Marketing said the funding will be used for the company’s plans to lead the smartwatch category in India, strengthen its position in audio, research and development, and to support local manufacturing under the government’s Make-in-India initiative.
“We now want to make smartwatches our second core and will replicate the boAt digital playbook to become global leaders in this category as well. The new funding will allow us to invest significantly to disrupt the smart watches space with more innovative products,” said Aman Gupta, co-founder and chief marketing officer of boAt, in a company statement.
The company, which has partnerships with Qualcomm, Dolby and Dirac, is adding smartwatches to its products list. It is diversifying its manufacturing by signing partnerships, like a joint venture with Dixon.
A significant proportion of boAt’s products are produced in India: 1 million units every month. The company said it plans to take the boAt brand overseas.
“We are very excited about the potential of smartwatches. The market today is in the early stages of evolution and most players don’t have control over the end-to-end stack to offer compelling features to consumers. There is a significant opportunity to build the category and launch more distinctive and technologically advanced products,” said Sameer Mehta, co-founder and chief product officer of boAt.
“Through boAt labs (our 120-person in-house R&D team) and our acquisition of KaHa Technologies, (a world-class wearables technology and IoT platform, with 64 patents and patent applications), we are developing the next generation of products,” he said.
The company closed Financial Year 2021-22 with a revenue of around Rs 3,000 crore.