boAt Reshuffles Top Positions; Promotes Sameer Mehta As CEO & MD, Vivek Gambhir As Chairman

IPO-bound D2C electronics brand boAt has announced that it has promoted CEO Vivek Gambhir as the chairman of the company. Also, its cofounder Sameer Mehta has been elevated to the position of CEO and managing director. 

With the new role, Gambhir will lead strategy, organisational development, culture and future growth, PTI reported. 

“In early 2021, we approached Vivek to join and guide us in our scaling-up journey and prepare us to think and act like a bigger company rather than as a startup. The past several years have been a period of significant learning and growth with Aman and I working closely with Vivek to run the company,” Sameer Mehta said.

Prior to joining boAt, Gambhir was with Godrej Consumers Products, acting as a whole-time director. He also worked as a partner with Bain & Company. 

On the other hand, Mehta previously founded two companies–Imagine Marketing and Redwood Interactive. He also served as an executive director at Kores (India) Ltd, according to his LinkedIn profile. 

“We are now the number two company globally in the wearables (earwear and smartwatches) space in addition to being a leading brand in multiple categories in India. It is a matter of great pride that a brand born in India is now among the top brands in the world. And I am excited about the next phase of boAt, under the co-founders’ visionary leadership,” Gambhir said.

The developments come at a time when D2C player boAt is seeing promising growth as its balance sheet has turned positive in the financial year 2022.

In FY22, it posted a profit of INR 68.7 Cr while its revenue surged by 117.5% to INR 2,886.4 Cr. Meanwhile, its sales also grew over 2X to INR 2,872.9 Cr in the corresponding financial year. 

As per the International Data Corporation (IDC) report, boAt led the Indian wearables market with 32.1% share in the third quarter of 2022. Whereas, in the true wireless (TWS) earphones category, it held a 41.7% market share while in the smartwatches category, it held a 19.1% market share in Q3 2022.

Talking about its INR 2000 Cr IPO plans, the Delhi-based consumer electronics brand seems to be delaying its public listing after seeing the poor performance of the new-age listed startups in Indian bourses.

By doing so, boAt has joined the likes of PharmEasy, Udaan, MobiKwik and other startups that are postponing or withdrawing their IPO plans seeing the current market scenario.