boAt FY23 Net Sales Zoom To Nearly INR 4K Cr On Growth In Wearables, Audio Categories

Continuing its growth momentum, D2C electronics brand boAt on Thursday (June 15) said its net sales rose to around INR 4,000 Cr (about $500 Mn) during the financial year 2022-23 (FY23).

This represents a growth of about 39% from net sales of INR 2,872.9 Cr in FY22.

In a statement, the D2C brand attributed the rise in sales to sustained growth in the audio and wearables categories and its focus on the offline channel. 

boAt said its ‘significant investments’ in alternative sale channels are bearing fruit, adding that it is ‘well-positioned and strongly capitalised’ for further aggressive growth. 

“We are continuing to make significant strides in establishing ourselves as a dominant lifestyle brand in the categories in which we play in the Indian ecosystem… we believe boAt is well positioned and capitalised to continue to make aggressive investments in establishing ourselves as a leading wearables brand in the country, similar to our achievements in the audio category,” boAt cofounder and CEO Sameer Mehta said.

Elaborating on its strategy for the audio vertical, boAt said its partnerships with global companies, including Qualcomm (investor in boAt), Dolby and Dirac, has helped it bring global technologies in the audio space to Indian consumers. 

It also claimed to have diverted a significant capital to spur its local manufacturing ecosystem. The startup claimed to have manufactured 1.5 Cr products in India in partnership with players such as Dixon so far.

With regards to the wearable category, boAt said it has invested a significant amount in shoring up its software play. It said it is focussed on building an integrated end-to-end hardware and software stack, along with a consumer app, to tap into Indian consumers and local use-cases.

Founded in 2015 by Aman Gupta and Mehta, boAt operates in the larger audio and wearables markets and sells products such as headphones, smart watches and  speakers. 

It is one of the biggest players in the D2C audio space and competes with the likes of Noise, JBL and LoopAudio. 

As per a report, boAt topped the Indian wearables market with 23.9% market share in the fourth quarter of 2022. In the true wireless (TWS) earphones category, the D2C brand accounted for a market share of 38.5% during the same period. 

boAt is one of the few consumer-facing Indian startups that is profitable. In FY22, it reported a net profit of INR 68.7 Cr. However, profit declined 20% on a year-on-year basis.

Last year, the startup put its proposed INR 2,000 Cr initial public offering (IPO) on hold due to adverse market conditions and the poor performance of new-age tech startups on the bourses. 

The latest announcement comes a couple of months after boAt reshuffled its top brass, elevating CEO Vivek Gambhir as the chairman and appointing cofounder Mehta as the CEO and MD.