boAt is a Mumbai-based consumer electronics start-up that has recently announced to raise INR 440 crore in its latest Series B funding round which was led by South Lake Investment Limited, an investment firm based out of Cayman Islands.
boAt is a lifestyle brand and according to reports by entrackr, the funding came in at a very crucial time for the company because Warburg Pincus, a New York-based global private equity firm was in advanced talks with the consumer electronics start-up to acquire 40% of its stakes.
However, according to regulatory filings, 15,507 preference shares from Series B round were allotted at an issue price of INR 2,83,749 in order to raise the funding amount.
Founded back in 2016 by Sameer Mehta and Aman Gupta, boAt offers consumer electronic products such as speakers, headphones, earphones, travel chargers, cables etc. The post financing valuation of the start-up concludes to an estimate of INR 2,100 crore, according to Fintrackr.
It has also been revealed by the regulatory filings that both the co-founders, having 90.72% shareholding in the company have diluted to hold an equal stake of 35.4% which makes a total of 70.8% shareholding.
Existing investors of the company, including angel investors, collectively hold 7.25% stake in the company, while South Lake Investment holds 21.05% stake in boAt.
The brand has shown promising growth since its inception in 2016, it has become a lifestyle statement among millennials. Along with headphones, speakers, earphones and premium charging cables, the start-up has also entered into the wearable tech segment with their boAt smart-band.
boAt has established a Research and Development (R&D) unit in the country to understand local likes and dislikes, trends and fashion. The research team further looks out for homegrown solutions for electronic components to minimise international imports of components.
Coming back to the company’s funding, according to data report on CrunchBase, boAt has till date raised total funding worth USD 670 million in over four rounds of financing.
The last funding received by the start-up was in a Debt Financing round that concluded on September 1, 2020, and was led by Temasek Holding’s InnoVen Capital.
Other existing investors in the company include Fireside Ventures and Sachin Bansal’s Navi Technologies.
Mentioned in a report by entrackr, boAt has also been EBITDA positive since its inception and has grown 2.5 times from previous Financial Year 2019, says Aman Gupta, co-founder and CMO, boAt.
