Indian audio and accessory maker BoAt has raised a whopping $100 million from well-known private equity firm Warburg Pincus. The four-year-old startup is now valued at $300 million and possibly one of the biggest success stories in the hardware market in recent times in India.
BoAt, for those unaware, is the maker of affordable earbuds, headphones, and mobile accessories. The fund-raise is a testimony to the company’s growth over the past four years. It plans to use these funds to boost its R&D efforts, bring more production to India (partner with local manufacturers), and expand to new geographies.
“The investment is great news for not only the company but also for the entire direct-to-consumer (D2C) sector. The investment has come at the right time as we make efforts to ramp up our manufacturing and global supply chain,” said Aman Gupta, the co-founder of boAt.
Warburg Pincus is said to have picked up a significant minority stake in the company. Prior to this investment, BoAt had only raised $3 million in equity and debt financing. It has also received a massive $60 million from Silver Lake Investment towards the end of December. But, what should interest you more is the fact that the company managed to achieve profitability over these four years.
BoAt started off its hardware journey with charging cables and power adapters back in 2016. It was founded by Aman Gupta and Sameer Mehta. The company quickly turned into an audio accessories brand, which is now its forte, and has since expanded beyond in recent months.
The company recently emerged as the leading player in the TWS earbuds market. boAt commands control over 18% of the TWS market, with earbuds available for as low as Rs. 1,300 in India. Yes, they are quite affordable and feel premium for the price. BoAt is now also making smartwatches and aims to use a chunk of the funds to expand to the gaming accessories market. Be on the lookout for boAt-branded gaming mice and keyboard that will take on AmazonBasics, Cosmic Byte, and several other entry-level players in the country.
