Wearables maker boAt dreams of premium pursuits post-IPO. Won’t be easy, experts warn.

Gurugram-based Imagine Marketing launched the botAt brand in 2016 and quickly became the market leader in cheap smartwatches and headphones. Nine years have passed since its founding, and the company is now trying to recover itself while also setting its sights on premium devices. ₹1,500 crore initial public offering (IPO).

However, analysts said the plan to sell more premium products could be a tough challenge for BoAt, even as India’s overall electronics market sees persistent demand for more premium devices.

Two-thirds of IPO proceeds are given up

On Wednesday, botAt filed a revised draft red herring prospectus (DRHP), nearly four years after its initial public offering attempt. In January 2022, BoAt submitted a draft document. ₹2,000 crore was offered, but the process was stopped citing market conditions.

New shows that BoAt aims to increase ₹1,500 crore through IPO ₹500 crore is coming from a fresh share issue and the remaining balance through an offer for sale by its promoters and existing investors, including Warburg Pincus and boAt founders.

between ₹Aims to raise Rs 1,500 crore from revised IPO ₹500 crore will go to the company and will it plan to use it for working capital, marketing and other expenses? what remains ₹1,000 crore offer for sale (OFS) component will go to Fireside Ventures, which invested ₹Qualcomm Ventures, which had $6 billion on board and invested in May 2018 ₹50 crore in May 2022.

The company appears to be aware of the difficulties in transitioning to premium. between ₹30% of the ₹500 crore collected for his own business or ₹The draft IPO document stated that Rs 150 crore has been allocated for “branding and marketing expenses towards increasing awareness and visibility of our products and brand”.

‘It’s hard to break the value label’

Navkendar Singh, vice-president of market research and consulting firm International Data Corporation (IDC) India, said: “The wristwear market is facing challenges and the audio products market is seeing nominal growth. In India, there is always a strong market for value products that reliably deliver key parts. But the resilience of value brands is strong for core products like cars. In such a market, can you drop the value tag and start selling premium products? It will certainly be difficult. In a stagnant market, there is little to improve product strategy and branding without losing customers and impacting revenue.” There is room to realign its image.”

Data shared by IDC Mint It showed BoAt, India’s third-largest smartwatch maker after Noise and Fire-Boltt, sold 7.5 million smartwatches in 2023 and 4.1 million in 2024, with the entire market collapsing by 35% from the previous year. The sound work was in better shape. boAt has been at the top of the headphone industry in the last two years, selling 27.3 million units in 2023 and 28.7 million units in 2024. boAt’s two biggest competitors in audio are Boult and Noise.

Companies trying to move up the value chain may have to compromise on volumes.

India sold 12.2 million smartwatches in 2021. Shipments reached 53.4 million in 2023 and fell to 35 million in 2025. The segment is expected to see a double-digit decline this year as well. Meanwhile, sales of audio products have increased since the pandemic, but the rate of growth is slowing. Approximately 50 million headsets were sold in 2021, and this number reached 83.5 million in 2025. Headphone sales are expected to increase by around 5 percent this year. Overall, the smartwatch market is down 34% year-on-year in 2024, while audio products grew by just 4%.

This could make things difficult for BoAt, said Nirransh Jain, research analyst at brokerage firm BNP Paribas. “It is difficult to immediately retool a brand’s image to pursue a premium target. The rapid growth of the market has also taken a breather. This means companies trying to move up the value chain may have to compromise on volumes,” he said.

The company’s path to profitability, as outlined in draft IPO documents, includes expanding margins by selling more expensive products and investing in research and development (R&D) to create original designs and expand into new product categories.

R&D plans: real but uncertain

The company is planning to invest some of its shares, said a senior executive, who requested anonymity as the company is in a quiet period until its IPO is approved by Sebi. ₹500 crore is generated from R&D. In January 2022, the company founded boAt Labs to pursue this type of R&D.

R&D expenses have remained between 1.3% and 1.7% of revenue in the last three fiscal years. The company produced ₹3,097.81 crore revenue generated and profit recorded in FY25 ₹61 crore after suffering severe losses in two consecutive financial years. But the company hasn’t revealed details about what areas of the business R&D will contribute to or exactly how much it plans to spend on it.

In many cases, the industry leaves R&D in the background, prioritizing other investments of the necessary scale.

BNP’s Jain said: “For most Indian electronics companies, R&D investments are around 1-1.5% of their net sales. While many companies are investing at this scale, what matters is how channel deployment, portfolio expansion and working capital investments are balanced against innovation investments. In most cases, the industry prioritizes other investments needed at scale, leaving R&D in the background.”

The company also did not provide a timeline for when it plans to expand into other markets. While the above-mentioned executive stated that the company is in active talks with distribution partners in the UAE, the draft IPO documents also mention South Asia and Southeast Asia as target markets.

Company plans to raise funds from public investors after nearly raising funds ₹1,350 crore ($162 million) has been raised in nine years from private investors such as Warburg Pincus, which is not seeking an exit through a planned IPO. boAt’s promoters Sameer Mehta and Aman Gupta are also not selling their stake and will retain 24.9% stake in Imagine Marketing if the listing is approved.

Sharks under the lens

boAt’s listing coincides with the listing of domestic consumer brand Lenskart, which is scheduled to be listed on stock exchanges on November 10. Lenskart’s founder and managing director Peyush Bansal and boAt’s Gupta are fellow judges of the popular reality show Shark Tank India. While Gupta’s IPO attempt is yet to face intense scrutiny, Lenskart’s ₹The 70,000 crore valuation for the listing has been publicly questioned.

When Mehta stepped down as boAt’s managing director on September 30, Gupta emerged as the face of the brand, largely thanks to her efforts as chief marketing officer and the popularity she gained through Shark Tank India. Gupta worked at Citibank, KPMG and electronics group Harman before starting his entrepreneurial journey with boAt in 2014.

Mehta, who has a fairly low public profile, previously tried to launch a consumer-facing technology brand with Redwood Interactive between 2007 and 2015. He also serves as general manager of the India arm of Austrian art materials company Kores.