Indian electronics firm BoAt banks $100m from Warburg Pincus affiliate

India-based consumer electronics startup BoAt said it has raised about US$100 million from an affiliate of private equity fund Warburg Pincus.

Company founders (from left) Aman Gupta and Sameer Mehta/ Photo credit: BoAt

Launched in 2016, BoAt has a catalogue that includes headphones, earphones, smartwatches, speakers, travel chargers, and premium cables that’s sold through its own ecommerce platform as well as Amazon and Flipkart. The company currently has about 150 employees across its offices in India.

With the new funds, the company can “focus on building capabilities in domestic R&D and undertake vertical integration across both the hearable and wearable space to establish India as a global supplier,” said co-founder Sameer Mehta.

BoAt is also preparing to delink its operations from China amid strained relations with India, even though the earphones industry largely depends on the Middle Kingdom. The company said that its chargers and cables are already being manufactured in India.

The homegrown electronics maker claims to be profitable, saying that it has more than doubled in revenue in recent years. The latest fundraise comes amid talks that Warburg will acquire a 40% stake in Imagine Marketing, the company that runs BoAt.

According to the International Data Corporation, BoAt had a 2.6% market share in the wearables space in the fourth quarter of 2020. It competes with global giants such as Samsung, Apple, Huawei, Xiaomi, and Fitbit.