Sameer Mehta recalls the time when he and Aman Gupta were denied entry at an electronics exhibition in China. The exhibition authorities enquired about their company and scale of operations, and then denied them entry, “citing that they work with big, large-scale brands”. That’s a far cry from now, when their company has emerged as the second-largest wearables brand in the world; Apple tops the list. And they’ve done it in just about seven years since the brand came into being. Such has been the journey of boAt, which was co-founded by 47-year-old Mehta (now CEO) and 42-year-old Gupta (now, Chief Marketing Officer).
But how did it all begin? In 2013-14, the audio accessories market in India was experiencing a significant boom, thanks in part to the entry of affordable smartphones. There was an influx of primarily European brands into India, but what was absent were products tailored for the country. Both Delhi-based Gupta, who was then the Sales Head for Harman International’s lifestyle brands—JBL, Harman Kardon and AKG—in the Indian market, and Mumbai-based Mehta, who at that point was running his gaming accessories brand RedWood Interactive, noticed this.
Gupta and Mehta, who didn’t know each other then, started making plans independently to address this gap. A mutual acquaintance, who knew their plans, put them in touch. Sensing a potential collaboration, the duo met at the Taj Lands End in Bandra (luckily, Gupta was visiting Mumbai then). Within a week of that meeting, they had set up Imagine Marketing, each pooling in Rs 15 lakh.
By that time, the duo had realised that launching one’s brand—especially one that wanted to customise its products for Indian consumers—would require a lot of research. They decided that in the interim, Imagine would import and distribute products for foreign brands, including House of Marley. At the same time, Gupta and Mehta made multiple trips to China, where more than 90 per cent of electronics were made then. In China, they also attended many exhibitions (at one of which they were refused entry).
Finally, in 2016, they unveiled ‘boAt’; the first products from boAt were charging cables for smartphones, including iPhones. But why such a name for an accessories brand? “The idea is when you go to the sea in a boat, you leave the land behind. It is the same with our headphones; when you wear them, you get into your zone,” explains Gupta, adding that the brand’s logo also has the image of a boat. “We are taught from childhood, A for apple, B for boat. And as apple was taken by another brand, we had to go for boat,” he adds with a chuckle.
BoAt started selling its products on e-commerce platforms Amazon and Flipkart. The next hurdle was arranging for funds after they received a large order from an online player. In the sea of global players, banks and investors were not sure about the success of the home-grown brand. Gupta and Mehta had to borrow from family and friends to fulfil the order. That, however, did not deter them. Next, they expanded to neckbands and speakers.
The first big milestone came in the second year of operations: boAt did business of Rs 100 crore. “It was like a dream come true,” says Gupta, who qualified as a chartered accountant at 21, and is an MBA from the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad. For context, boAt does sales worth more than Rs 100 crore per month now. The duo also raised funding for the first time after crossing the Rs 100-crore milestone. Subsequently, it became India’s largest wearables brand in 2020, a position it holds till date.
Over the years, boAt has grown its offerings—from wireless headphones to true wireless stereo (TWS) buds to smartwatches. It has also grown its revenues. Imagine, boAt’s parent, closed FY23 with revenue of Rs 3,258.4 crore and a loss of Rs 101 crore, per the Registrar of Companies. In FY22, the company had reported revenue of Rs 2,872.90 crore and profit after tax of Rs 78.82 crore. There have also been production milestones. “Two years ago, it was 100 per cent not made in India; now, 70 per cent is made in India,” says Mehta, a commerce graduate from Mumbai’s Narsee Monjee College of Commerce and Economics.
Looking back at boAt’s journey, Gupta says the company doesn’t consider other Indian brands as competition. “Instead, we are proud about paving the way for Indian entrepreneurship... we are in a space where we are feeding the dreams of a lot of Indians and entrepreneurs to start their own brand. We have shown India that brands can be built, and consumers are ready to accept Indian brands. And we are very proud of our journey as a young brand.”
The duo, who have 54 per cent stake in the company, were planning to raise Rs 2,000 crore in 2022 via an initial public offering, but have deferred it by a couple of years. Ask the founders why, and they say that the day Indians switch to buying smartwatches instead of traditional ones, boAt will go public. The focus these days is on two things: One, how to raise employee count to 10,000 from the current 6,000 (including indirect hires); and two, hitting the milestone of Rs 5,000 crore in sales in another two years.
The founders have set their sights firmly on these twin goals; and boAt is charting its path to the next milestone.
@nidhisingal
