The startup was valued at around $300 million in its Series B round about a year ago. Boat noted that it will be using the IPO proceedings to pay its past debts or in prepaying current debts
Imagine Marketing, the holding company of brand Boat, has filed for an IPO of up to Rs 2000 cr ($266 million). The company has plans to fresh issue shares worth up to Rs 900 crore, an offer for sale of shares worth up to Rs 1,100 crore. South Lake Investment will be selling shares of value upto Rs 800 cr.
The startup was valued at around $300 million in its Series B round about a year ago. Boat noted that it will be using the IPO proceedings to pay its past debts or in prepaying current debts. The IPO seems launched at a valuation of $1.5 billion or more.
Boat manufactures and retails a range of electronic lifestyle devices including wearables, headphones, fitness watches, smartwatches, gaming controllers, charging cables, earphones, portable battery packs and more mobile accessories. The company has had various Indian cricketers as its brand ambassadors. Aman Gupta, co-founder and CMO, Boat, is in fact a Shark on the popular Shark tank series being aired in India and the world. Boat is heavily dependent on online marketplaces for the sales part.
The company mentioning how it relies on contract manufactueres in the IPO noted, “We rely on these contract manufacturers to manufacture our products, and our contract manufacturers, in turn, rely on third-party suppliers for many of the components used in our products. For the financial years 2019, 2020 and 2021 and the six months period ended September 30, 2021, Rs 1,160.92 million ($15.4 million), Rs 3,408.33 million ($45.3 million), Rs 7,176.18 million ($95 million) and Rs 9,910.81 million ($131.8 million), or 57.79%, 69.34%, 57.19% and 60.73% of our purchases of stock-in-trade were made from five of our most used suppliers, respectively.”
The company has recently announced a joint venture with electronics contract manufacturer Dixon Technologies. The duo will be working together to design and manufacture wireless audio solutions. They also have plans to invest in the mobile accessory market under the Make in India Initiative. It might also explore the possibility of designing and manufacturing for other brands in the future. Vivek Gambhir, CEO at boAt had confirmed that the JV will initially have Boat as one of its anchor customers.
The JV will initially be manufacturing wireless audio products, and might foray into designing and manufacturing other categories in the future. Dixon has been contract manufacturing for Boat for over a year now.
