Boat Audio has become a well-known name in music gadgets and wearables today and is not in need of any introduction but what has made it such a successful company in a few years.

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5.4 Expenses Breakdown

6 Recent Funding Round

8 boat service center

About Founders

Boat Lifestyle has 2 Co-Founders. 36 years old Aman Gupta and Sameer Mehta. The boat was launched in 2016. Like other start-ups nothing was easy for them too. Aman Gupta already had an interest in music and gadgets, so it was not so difficult for him to understand its product selection and quality, he had worked on 2-3 start-ups even before this, he has a very good understanding of marketing and in the boat he is Also Chief Marketing Officer.

Another co-founder is Sameer Mehta.
Sameer has a lot of experience in business and leadership skills and he is business graduate from Narsee Monjee college Mumbai.

Challenges

One of the initial challenges was convincing contract manufacturers in China to produce small quantities while the boAt team designed the product and packaging. Gupta recalls pleading with them, “Please support us now; we will order more later.” They were then shipped to an Indian company “where only a minimum inventory was kept,” from which Amazon picked up packages for distribution. Between 2014 and 2016, the company served as a distributor for the global audio brand House of Marley (that is, before formally launching boAt in 2016).

It was done to generate some cash and gain more experience in this market.

The first product released by boAt was an indestructible Apple charging cable and charger. Previously, the Apple cable would break near the charging end (near the connectors). People used to make do by taping over the problem. So, says Mehta, “we launched a tough, braided cable with a life cycle of 10,000 bends.” boAt priced it at Rs 1,500, the same as the Apple cable. The product was an instant success, and it is still the best-selling cable on Amazon.

The second item they brought was an audio collection that included earphones. Gupta says, “I spent a lot of time in China, sitting in factories to get the product right.” The critical consumer insight that helped them differentiate their design is that Indians love bass. Approximately 90% of Indians still enjoy loud bass. It is a part of our culture, just like tabla and dhol. That is why our products have been tailored to Indian tastes. The name of their first earphones was €” BassHeads. The organised earphones market is estimated to be worth between $30 and $40 billion, with a 20-30% annual growth rate. BoAt introduced speakers in 2018, followed by soundbars and home audio systems in 2019.

Brand Positioning

Next, they needed a marketing push, but they didn’t have the funds to do so in the first year. The founders decided to use it to their advantage and communicate directly with customers about their immediate pain point. boAt’s first Facebook ad featured a broken-at-the-end Apple cable with the caption: Tired of buying charging cable? Use boAt’s indestructible charging cable instead. The boAt cable was Apple-certified and came with a two-year warranty, which added to its allure. Online communication was successful with the buyers.

This direct line to the consumer has the potential to cut both ways. Your products are constantly subjected to reviews as an online brand. In this case, quality is extremely important. Millenials are eager to give you a chance, but they are also the first to dismiss you if you fail to deliver, according to Gupta. The founders used the quick online product feedback to improve and even design new products. According to Gupta, “we would do a lot of data mining of our product reviews and competitor reviews to understand what the consumer was looking for.”

The startup made a conscious decision not to compete on price. A race to the bottom is what a price race is. According to Mehta, Chinese brands will destroy you. They chose to be in the middle, closer to the higher end of the price range. He continues, “We’re like the Zara of electronics.” We are not as expensive as some luxury brands, nor are we as inexpensive as Chinese electronics.

The brand has previously been primarily focused online, but the company is now focusing on the offline market. According to Gupta, the offline success of online-only brands such as Xiaomi demonstrates that millenials are still buying offline. We have now hired a team solely to handle offline sales. Gupta reports that Croma sales are increasing. While offline and online commissions are comparable, ranging from 30-40%, he claims that there are additional costs associated with online distribution. He claims that spending on shipping and marketing increases the cost, which you do not have to incur if you sell offline. Offline contributes about 15% now, and Gupta believes it will contribute 25% in two to three years.

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Funding Rounds

In the first two years, the founders barely raised any funds. Kanwaljit Singh of Fireside Ventures made the only funding round in May 2018, investing $60 million in the brand. According to Singh, “I was impressed by their ability to spot a white space, the founder’s experience, the product quality, and the right targeting.” His fund typically invests in consumer product startups in their early stages. Gupta is confident, saying with a laugh, “While others have a burn rate, we have an earn rate.” Since its inception, boAt Lifestyle has maintained a positive Ebitda.

Gupta decided to do more aggressive marketing last year after earning enough money. The startup capitalised on India’s passion for music, cricket, and Bollywood. We attempted to connect with all three through our influencers, he says. Campaigns have been launched with Bollywood actor Kartik Aaryan, cricketer Hardik Pandya, and Punjabi singer Guru Randhawa. I have not spent a single rupee on Google (ads) or television. While there are no direct ROI metrics for influencer marketing, it does help us spread the word, according to Gupta.

Sales Growth

Boat lifestyle doing extremely great in this segment with sales and touch new milestone year on year and been a cash rich company and exception in today’s start-up cash burn industries where the old companies like flipkart, Swiggy and many other still burning the cash for stay in the market.

Sales in Fy 2019

Gross Revenue is Rs100 crore + in fy-2019

Sales in Fy-2020

Gross Revenue is Rs 375 crore + in fy-2020

Sales in fy-2021

Gross Revenue is Rs 947crore + in fy-2021 with 2.2x Sales Growth.

image source FINTRACKR

Expenses Breakdown

bOAt cross the Rs1000 crore Plus in revenues and spend only 15 crore in salaries in fy2021.

image source FINTRACKR

Recent Funding Round

Boat Lifestyle recently in the Month of October2022 raise another round of funding of $60 million financing through convertible preferred stocks from existing investor warburg pincus and one new investor malabar investments and formally widhrawn the IPO listing, At present time many other ventures also raised the funding with the same process and delayed the IPO because as per the sources the present share market conditions are not much favorable.