boAt, a lifestyle brand that delivers consumer technology products raised its seed funding of Rs 6 crore from Fireside Ventures, an early-stage consumer brand-focused investment firm.
boAt specializes in providing consumer electronics goods with a touch of fashion. It primarily provides products such as earphones, headphones, speakers, travel charge and premium rugged cables. It aims at providing electronic products that are widely used in the everyday lives of 21st century citizens that can be used as a fashion accessory.
The company relied primarily on capital poured by its founders since inception two years ago. The funds raised from Fireside Ventures will serve the purpose of marketing the brand, developing products and widening its distribution across more tech product categories.
We need to add some more product categories… Currently we are largely doing personal audio, which is centered around the mobile and the mobile ecosystem. But we will be getting into home audio – soundbars, speakers,
Aman Gupta, co-founder and chief executive of boAt.
boAt began operations by relying exclusively on online retail, selling its products across leading e-commerce platforms such as Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal and is now ready to distribute its products through offline channels as well, focusing primarily in metro cities as a beginning before gradually expanding to Tier-II and Tier-III cities.
“We began by using the online channels more, since it provides greater validation of the products… But we are in the Croma and Apple stores now,” said Gupta. “This is the year we will target offline, for distribution primarily, across India,” he added.
The company was founded in 2016 by Aman Gupta and Sameer Mehta who both have background in the tech industry. The former worked as India Sales Director with Harman International, an American subsidiary of Samsung Group that designs and manufactures products for automakers, consumers and enterprises worldwide. Sameer Mehta is also associated with gaming hardware company RedGear. boAt saw the day after the founders poured a capital of Rs 30 lakh in the company.
“We both saw a big gap in this space… We have built a community of 8 lakh ‘boAtheads’ and which is growing by the day…The company’s products have consistently performed well due to considerable importance to quality and positive word-of-mouth marketing,” Mehta said.
The company does its own Research & Development and product design, however, the manufacturing of products happens in China. boAt claims that it is financially stable thanks to good customer retention who the company refers to as ‘boATheads’. Additionally, the company claims selling over 4200 units every day.
boAt’s products top the list on several e-commerce platforms. The company’s products have consistently performed well due to considerable importance to quality and positive word of mouth marketing driven with our passion for meaningful innovation as we expand our community of boAtheads,
added Mehta.
Additionally, Indian cricketer Hardik Pandya is the brand ambassador of boAt.
Fireside Ventures struck its fourth deal of the calendar year 2018 with this Rs 6 crore funding to boAt. Since inception, the venture capital fund has backed 12 companies, notably, Yoga Bar, Goodness Beverages, Vahdam Teas, Mama Earth and Bombay Shaving Company.