GOQii raises Rs 45 Cr from BCCL

Smart wearable brand GOQii has raised over Rs 45 crore from Bennett Coleman and Company Ltd (BCCL). 

According to RoC filing with MCA, the company held its board of director's meeting on 26th august to approve issue and allotment of share warrants to BCCL.

Each warrant was priced at Rs 9.1 crore, and the company issued five of them along with one equity share for Rs 8,535, raising a total of Rs 45,50,08,535, reveals the filing.

This would be the first external deal for GOQii in 2019. In the past six months, the startup has been raising small tranches at regular intervals from the parent entity, Goqii inc, to scale up its OTT vertical - GOQii Play.

In November 2018, GOQii had raised around $30-35 million Series B round led by Japan’s Mitsui & Co.

The five-year-old startup has emerged as a strong brand amongst fitness freaks. Started as a healthcare focussed wristband seller, GOQii now offers a gamut of fitness products under its wearable fitness band.

While global brands like Apple, Samsung, Fitbit, Xiaomi, and Titan, have already captured the market, startups in smart wearables like GOQii has been able to challenge them in pricing and user experience.

The company is evaluating artificial intelligence to optimise a better experience for users.

Leaf Wearables, MyZone, Witworks, are some of the startups working in this segment.

BCCL, which publishes the Times of India newspaper and operates television channels, generally strikes ad-for-equity deals via Brand Capital that acquires an equity stake in startups in lieu of advertisement space.

Till date, GOQii has raised about $50 million from the likes of Galaxy Digital, Denlow Investment Trust, DSG Consumer Partners, Cheetah Mobile, and individual investors such as Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Ratan Tata, Pravin Gandhi and Neeraj Arora.

In June, Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar also joined GOQii’s ongoing Series C funding round.