In its Series B round from Cayman Islands-based South Lake Investment Limited, consumer electronics startup BoAt has raised Rs 440 crore. Regulatory filings show that BoAt allocated 15,507 Series B preference shares to increase the volume at an issue price of Rs 2,83,749.
South Lake’s fresh investment came at a time when Warburg Pincus was reportedly in talks with boAt to buy a 40 percent stake in the company headquartered in Delhi.
BoAt’s founders, Sameer Mehta and Aman Gupta diluted their shareholding from 90.72 percent to 70.8 percent following the latest investment. Mehta and Gupta both hold an equal 35.04 per cent stake in the company. South Lake Investment has won a 21.05 percent stake in boAt, while other investors, including angels, hold a 7.25 percent stake collectively.
As per Entrackr, The investment was carried out at a nearly Rs 2,100 crore post-money valuation.
The portfolio of the four-year-old business consists of headphones, earphones, earbuds, speakers, travel chargers and luxury cables. It also forayed into the wearable market in November with the launch of its smart band. BoAt markets its brand alongside its own site across e-commerce sites such as Amazon and Flipkart and has a presence in more than 5,000 retail stores.
The boAt has been able to gain ground among millennials and has emerged in the segment of headphones and earbuds as a promising direction to the consumer or D2C brand. The business has developed a research and development wing in the nation to understand local contours and reduce component imports.
The boAt made four primary appointments to its leadership team in October to extend its product range across newer segments. While former LINE India head Damandeep Soni Singh was the Vice President of the company, Sushant Dalmia was named as CFO. As VP for strategy and supply chain, Divyanshu K and Pankaj Raut were named respectively.
This is the largest investment in boAt to date which, largely as debt, had previously raised funds. In September and about Rs 16 Cr in July 2019, venture debt company InnoVen Capital spent Rs 25 crore. In the same month, BoAt received Rs 20 crore in debt from Navi Technologies of Sachin Bansal (previously BAC Acquisitions).
The boAt was funded by early-stage investment company Fireside Projects in May 2018.
Though boAt has yet to file its FY20 financials, the company claims to have posted gross income in FY20 of over Rs 500 crore and aims to double the topline by FY24.
