boAt raises $100 Mn from Warburg Pincus

Consumer electronics startup boAt has raised $100 million from New York-based private equity fund Warburg Pincus. 

According to boAt, the company will use the fresh proceeds to invest in R&D and to set up local manufacturing besides ramping up its global supply chain by working with global manufacturers in the South East Asian region.

Last month, boAt had kicked off its Series B round with Rs 440 crore investment from Cayman Islands-based South Lake Investment Limited. It appears that South Lake Investment is an affiliate of Warburg. boAt was reportedly in talks with Warburg to raise a new round in lieu of 40% stake.

An ET report also suggested that Fireside Ventures, an early-stage investor of boAt, has sold part of its equity stake in this round. While the company hasn’t disclosed its valuation, Fintrackr estimates the post-money valuation of boAt at over $300 million.

This is a major round for boAt which had previously received around Rs 67 crore in debt from the likes of Fireside, Innvoven Capital and Sachin Bansal’s Navi Technologies (previously BAC Acquisitions).

Emerging as one of the top brands in the direct to consumer or D2C segment, boAt gained popularity in the past couple of years with its range of products including headphones, earphones, earbuds, speakers, travel chargers and premium cables. In November, boAt also entered into the wearable segment with the launch of its smart band.

A latest report by market intelligence platform IDC also said that the Delhi-based company became the fifth-largest global wearable device company by shipment. According to IDC, boAt was only behind Apple, Xiaomi, Huawei and Samsung, and shared the fifth spot with Fitbit.

boAt, which claims to have been profitable since its inception, disclosed that it grew 2.5X from the previous year and registered gross revenue of over Rs 500 crore in FY20. The company further targets a two-fold bump in its topline by FY24. It is yet to file its annual financial report for FY20.