boAt won Indian audio—now how far can it go?
Both the cynic and the optimist will find plenty to suit their arguments in the company’s draft IPO prospectus.
Why read this story?
Editor's note: It’s almost unheard of that an Indian consumer brand in any category is one of the top five in the world. But that’s where Mumbai-based wireless audio and wearables company boAt has been for most of the past 18 months. Last week, boAt, or Imagine Marketing Ltd, submitted its draft filing for an initial public offering to the markets regulator, in what would be the latest in a line of Indian tech IPOs. The company is looking to raise Rs 900 crore in fresh capital from the public markets, while private equity firm Warburg Pincus and co-founders Sameer Mehta and Aman Gupta are selling some of their shares for a total of Rs 1,100 crore. boAt has, over the past five years or so, come to dominate the Indian market for wireless earphones and headphones of all kinds, with a market share of 48% in the September quarter, according to market research firm IDC. That’s almost double the next four brands combined. Only four corporations in the world sell more wearables (wireless audio, smartwatches and fitness bands) than boAt, and …
More in Internet
You may also like
Eternal’s leap of faith: exit Goyal, enter Dhindsa
Deepinder Goyal’s handing of Eternal’s reins to Albinder Dhindsa raises uncomfortable questions about timing, risk and whether shareholders are being asked to trust yet another reassuring narrative.
BellaVita’s success has opened the floodgates to cheap fragrance brands
In less than five years, BellaVita has become one of the biggest fragrance brands in India. This has given several others confidence to follow the same playbook and sell cheap perfumes disguised as luxury.
Eternal, Swiggy, Zepto are all unskilled worker arbitrage businesses
Exploitation of unskilled workers is at the heart of quick-delivery service businesses in India. They should be valued for what they are and not what they pretend to be, a trait that has taken a devious form of wanting it both ways.