Imagine Marketing-operated electronics unicorn boAt saw a dip in its net profit for the first time in FY22, by 20.6% to Rs 68.7 crore from Rs 86.5 crore in FY21.
The fall in profit can be attributed to a 2.3x rise in total expenses of Rs 2,787 crore against Rs 1,202 crore. The company has reported an 80% rise in its material procurement cost for the fiscal, at Rs 2,346 crore.
BoAt's advertising and promotions spends also rose which 2x to about Rs 99.1 crore from Rs 47.9 crore in FY21. Its employee benefits costs stood at Rs 56.1 crore while it spent Rs 136.6 crore on warranty claims and after-sale services, which are handled by third-party firms.
The New Delhi-based startup posted a 2.2x jump in revenue from operations to Rs 2,873 crore in FY22 from Rs 1,314 crore in FY21, as per its consolidated financial statement available with the Registrar of Companies.
Founded in 2016 by Sameer Mehta and Aman Gupta, boAt sells audio devices such as earphones, speakers and soundbars as well as wearables like smartwatches and other electronic accessories.
The Warburg Pincus-backed company’s revenue from audio products, which accounted for nearly 80% of topline, jumped 85.3% to Rs 2,276 crore in the last fiscal, as compared to Rs 1,228.6 crore it earned from the same category in FY21. On the other hand, boAt made Rs 515.5 crore from the sale of wearables in FY21, growing close to 9.5x from Rs Rs 54.8 crore in the fiscal before.
BoAt pits against homegrown players such as PTron, Boult, Mivi and Noise, among others as well as global players like Sony, Skullcandy, JBL, and Xiaomi.
In the third quarter of the last calendar year, boAt emerged as the leader in the Indian wearable market with a 32.1% share, as per data from International Data Corporation (IDC).
The company raised around Rs 500 crore in a fresh round of equity funding led by its existing backer US-headquartered private equity firm Warburg Pincus and new investor Malabar Investments after dropping its listing plans due to concerns related to market conditions in October last year. The round valued the company at around $1.4 billion. It also raised nearly $100 million from Warburg Pincus in January 2021.
