The company is likely to be valued in the range of Rs 11,000 crore ($1.5 billion). Details of the quantum of primary and secondary share sale are not yet known.
US based private equity fund Warburg Pincus is the largest investor in boAt with holding close to 30% stake. Other investors include Qualcomm Ventures and Fireside Ventures which together hold less than 5% stake.
The DRHP will be filed in a couple of months and the IPO is expected by early 2022, said one of the persons. Mumbai-based boAt, established in 2016 by Sameer Mehta and Aman Gupta, sells headphones, earphones, wearables, speakers, and related accessories such as chargers and cables.
boAt, operated by Imagine Marketing Pvt Ltd, had
raised nearly Rs 750 crore ($100 million) from the US-based Warburg Pincus early this year.
Qualcomm Ventures invested Rs 50 crore in April at a valuation of Rs 2,200 crore. In 2019, boAt received Rs 20 crore as venture debt from BAC Acquisitions, cofounded by the Flipkart founder Sachin Bansal.
The startup had generated about Rs 700 crore in revenue for FY20.
boAt is the fifth-largest wearables brand globally. In India, boAt competes with brands such as OnePlus, Samsung, Realme, JBL, Bose and Palred (Ptron).
In April, boAt had partnered with 6 Indian Premier League (IPL) teams as their official audio partner. boAt’s brand ambassadors include KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal.
The earwear category in India grew by 113.1% YoY in April-June Quarter (2Q21), shipping 9.2-million-units, according to the recent data from the International Data Corporation (IDC). BoAt’s aggressive shipments and diverse portfolio helped it gain a dominant 45.5% share in 2Q21. It also led the True Wireless (TWS) category with a 39.6% share in the quarter. In watch category, BoAt came in second with 26.9% market share,
India’s wearables market grew 118.2% year-over-year (YoY) in 2Q21 (April-June), shipping 11.2 million units, according to International Data Corporation’s. The earwear category has maintained its momentum, doubling its shipments in 2Q21 and remains the largest category in wearables.
The second wave of the Covid-19 had a marginal impact as the overall wearable shipments declined by 1.3% sequentially in 2Q21.
Partial lockdowns, weekend curfews, and disrupted supply chains resulted in a skewed slump in the early-quarter shipments.
However, unlike last year, the market was quick to recover as vendors stocked the channels to fulfil the pent-up consumer demand in June 2021.
Indian startups which are set to enter the capital markets include
Nykaa,
MobiKwik,
Tracxn,
Delhivery, and
Paytm.
