[Funding alert] InnoVen Capital invests Rs 25 Cr in consumer electronics startup boAt

Innoven capital, Asia’s venture debt and specialty lending firm, recently invested Rs 25 crore in consumer electronics startup boAt.

Started in 2016, Boat Lifestyle's portfolio includes headphones, earphones, speakers, travel chargers and premium cables. Last month, the lifestyle brand forayed into the wearable segment with the launch of its smart band.

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Ashish Sharma, CEO, Innoven Capital India, said, “boAt is one of the high performing companies in our portfolio, which has not only grown over 3X since we started the relationship but has managed to do that while being profitable. It’s a perfect case-study on how to build a new-age brand, through superior customer insights, effective marketing, and relentless execution.”  

Sameer Mehta, Co-Founder, boAt, said, 

“We are delighted to strengthen our partnership with InnoVen Capital. We continue to stay focused on delivering on our brand promise to our boAtheads. It’s been an exciting journey to build one of the leading homegrown digitally native brands from India, but we are more excited about the next phase as we expand our product offering.”

The company claims to have created a community of over two million 'boAtheads' (consumers) and sells between 14,000-15,000 units a day. It holds around 20 percent market share in the earwear segment as per the data released by IT market research and advisory firm International Data Corporation (IDC). 

As per a PTI report, Boat Lifestyle registered gross revenue of over Rs 500 crore in FY20 and aims to double the topline by FY24.

"We had a target of Rs 500 crore revenue in FY22. We have already crossed that; we had an outstanding year in FY20. We have grown 2.5X from the previous year...since inception, our financial performance has been strong and we have been EBITDA positive," Boat Co-founder Aman Gupta told PTI.

The company "has a sustainable approach to growth, is not burning money like many startups and FY24 is where we should do Rs 1,000 crore revenue".

(Edited by Teja Lele Desai)