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New Delhi
Imagine Marketing Ltd, the parent company of wearable brand boAt, is raising ₹500 crore from its existing shareholder, an affiliate of Warburg Pincus and a new investor Malabar Investments.
The company has also proactively withdrawn its DRHP due to current market conditions but is likely to reconsider IPO plans in the next 12-18 months.
The company said that this investment will enable it to accelerate its plans to attain leadership in the smartwatches category and scale up its business across channels and geographies.
It added that the funds will also enable it to enhance its R&D and design capabilities, and support building a local manufacturing ecosystem under the Make-in-India initiative.
Aman Gupta, Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer of boAt said, “We have established clear leadership in our core personal audio category and are the number two player globally in earwear. It is a matter of great pride that a brand that was born in India is now ranked amongst the top brands in the world.
Gupta added, “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 smartwatch space with more innovative products.”
boAt closed FY 2022 with net revenue of approximately ₹3,000 crore clocking a growth of about 100 per cent year-on-year and said it is building a profitable business.
Tapping new opportunities
Sameer Mehta, Co-founder & Chief Product Officer of boAt, said, “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.”
Mehta added, “There is a significant opportunity to build the category and launch more distinctive and technologically advanced products. 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.“
The company said it is also making significant progress in diversifying its manufacturing footprint through partnerships with various EMS players in India, including Dixon, with whom it has also created a manufacturing JV.
A significant proportion of boAt’s products are now being produced in India (~1 million units every month currently). The company is also putting plans in place to take the boAt brand overseas, it added.
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