About Boat
The boat is an Indian electronic consumer brand. The company was founded in the year 2014. The founder of the company is Aman Gupta, also the Chief Marketing Officer while Sameer Mehta is the co-founder and Chief Product Officer of the company.
The company was has a parent company in the name of Image Marketing Services Private Limited, but now works under the name of Boat. The company has its headquarters in Delhi. The company started its business focused on selling its products through the E-commerce website, Amazon.
But over the years, the company shifted its products selling on other websites as well and launched its own website for the selling of the products. The company also started providing its products in the offline market as well, which is a benefit for customers, who don’t want to wait for the product to be delivered on other days and get the product at the same moment.
Who is the co-founder of BOAT?
The co-founder Aman Gupta recently appeared in a TV Show named Shark Tank, which is an adaptation of the US-based show Shark Tank which recently completed 13 seasons of its broadcasting, with people all over the world seeing the show. In the show, Aman invested in various companies, made some deals with all the sharks in the show, and had some interesting moments for all the viewers of the show.
As the company he has built over the years, it is a D2C model of the company which means direct selling of the product to its customers, which means there is no middle man to inflate the price of the product.
The company was started with the selling of headphones, but the competition was fierce, as it had many established brands in this market like Sony, Bose, and JBL, but the company broke into the market as the company used a different marketing strategy for its products.
The company provided the pricing of the products at a reasonable price and provided a good base for its products. This was the reason, the company was able to get the better of its rivals in the products. The company then launched its products in different wearables as well.
The other products include headphones, speakers, and smartwatches as well. Company in recent times watched True Wireless Earbuds, which provide a good base as the wired earphones of the company. The company launched a smartwatch with Alexa Built-in the watch, which is a good and innovative product in the market. This helps the company to gain more customers and beat the competition in the process as well.
D2C Startup
The direct-to-consumer (D2C) startup has an 18% share in the true wireless stereo (TWS) market in India, according to Counterpoint Research data, followed by Mi at 16%, Realme at 12%, JBL at 8%, and Apple with 6% share of the market.
The company in course of its active presence in the market has made 2 acquisitions so far. One of the acquisitions is of –
- TAGG – It is a technology-driven lifestyle company that aims to make high-end products more accessible.
- KaHa Pte – It’s a smart wearable technology firm that offers brands an end-to-end IoT platform for launching smart wearable goods.
Boat Successful Ventures
The company now has completed the venture round funding, debt financing from investors, and Series A and B rounds from its investors. Warburg Pincus, a New York-based private equity firm, has invested $100 million in boAt in exchange for sizable minority interest, without disclosing the company’s current valuation or the amount of equity dilution.
It is estimated that boAt is worth between Rs. 1,600 and Rs. 1,800 crore. Fireside Ventures, a 6 crore early-stage investor, sold a portion of its ownership in 2018. Qualcomm Ventures, Qualcomm Inc.’s investment arm, has invested in the consumer electronics business boAt, the company announced on Friday, without providing the financial details. In 2021, Qualcomm Ventures has put in Rs 50 crore at a valuation of Rs 2,200 crore, according to people familiar with the transaction.
The price is identical to January, when Warburg Pincus, a New York-based private equity firm, paid $100 million for a major minority investment in the wearables company. The corporation, on the other hand, will receive a lower portion. Qualcomm is being considered by boAT as a strategic partner with whom to utilize its infrastructure and intellectual capital.
The funds will be used to invest in R&D and to establish local manufacturing. The company had previously raised roughly $3 million in stock and debt financing, and now has a post-money worth of almost $300 million.
BOAT Influencer Marketing
The boAt uses a combination of influencer marketing and brand tie-ins with sports teams and public events to sell its products. Brand users are referred to as “BoAtheads” by the firm. Indian singers Neha Kakkar and rapper Naved Shaikh (also known as Naezy) are among the company’s brand influencers, as are cricketers Hardik Pandya and Shreyas Iyer, among others.
The company has partnered with sports teams such as the Chennai Super Kings and the Mumbai Indians in the past. Additionally, BoAt has partnered with music festivals such as Sunburn Festival and other large-scale events such as the Lakmé Fashion Week to co-brand its audio equipment.
During the 2021 China–India conflict, amid the rising of anti-China sentiment in India, the Boycotts of Chinese products. The company stated that it has been importing its products are from China. Many Chinese manufactured products were targeted as a result of ongoing anti-China sentiment.
Boat announced a production relocation to India, but claimed no losses due to anti-China sentiment, citing the Indian government’s Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for wearables as the basis for the move. Moving away from China, the business formed a joint venture with Indian electronics maker Dixon Technologies to produce its wireless audio products domestically.
