Comments
Homegrown wearables brand Boult will foray into the smart eyewear category, with plans to launch one or two new products in the next 6 to 12 months, a top company executive told businessLine.
Smart glasses are wearable gadgets designed to be worn on the eyes or head, providing valuable functions to the user. Many smart glasses incorporate displays that overlay information onto the wearer’s field of vision.
On a global scale, Meta Connect, in partnership with EssilorLuxottica, recently unveiled the next-generation Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses collection. Meanwhile, in India, companies like Titan Eyecare have already made strides in the same domain.
Co-founder Varun Gupta explained their strategy for entering a new category, stating, “When we initially launch a new category, we do not come out with too many products to confuse the customers. We launch 1-2 technical variants, plus there are 4-5 colour variants.”
“We believe smart glasses or any other smart wearable product that can provide more data and projection will do well. One such product was launched by Meta in partnership with a leading eyewear brand,” the co-founder said.
With this expansion into the smart eyewear category, Boult intends to target the “masstige” market, catering to the masses while incorporating elements of the prestige category. Gupta highlighted, “Basically, it’s everything minus the top 1 per cent market, so it is not just the mass market.”
The bootstrapped company, which generated a topline of ₹500 crore last year, is among the country’s top five wearable companies with a 6.6 per cent share and 176.9 per cent y-o-y growth in Q2 2023, according to the International Data Corporation’s (IDC) India Monthly Wearable Device Tracker.
“Further, the majority of the country buys value-for-money products, and that is why the four top brands in both smartwatches and TWS are in the value-for-money segment,” he added.
It is in the process of establishing its second manufacturing facility in Gurgaon, which is expected to become operational by December and will focus on manufacturing smartwatches and audio products for now. Currently, their existing manufacturing facility is situated in the Wazirpur Industrial Area in northern Delhi.
In addition to its domestic efforts, the homegrown brand is also expanding to the international market, with initial plans to sell its products in the UK and the US. Gupta mentioned, “We are available on Amazon in the UK. We will be launching both categories in January 2024 in other geographies.”
Given the demand and size of the domestic market, Gupta said that while India will continue to be its focus in the years to come, the company plans to scale its international operations by 2025 to the extent of generating close to 30 to 50 per cent of its topline from the overseas market.
“India still has a billion plus consumers; the ecosystem, the channels of marketplaces, the purchasing power— everything is going up. So, there’s no way to not focus on India itself.”
The country is anticipated to be a major market for wearables in 2023, with projections of 130–135 million units out of the 504.1 million units expected to be shipped globally by the year’s end, accounting for 26 per cent of the total units shipped worldwide, according to a report by market research firm IDC India.
Boult’s product offerings currently span two categories: True Wireless Stereo (TWS) and smartwatches. According to the IDC, Boult retained its second-place position in the TWS category, with a 9.6 per cent market share. In the smartwatch category, it secured fourth place with a 3.4 per cent market share.
Additionally, the company has plans to nearly double its topline revenue by the end of FY24. Gupta said, “We are aiming for a revenue range of approximately ₹900 to ₹1000 crore, with smartwatches contributing about 30 per cent of our revenue and the remaining 70 per cent coming from audio products.”
Notably, Boult has not sought external funding until now, but Gupta hinted at the possibility of exploring external investment in early part of the coming year. The brand competes with players such as BoAt, Noise, OPPO, and Fire-Boltt.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.