Imagine Marketing Pvt. Ltd, a startup that makes consumer electronics products under the boAt brand, has raised Rs 25 crore ($3.43 million at current exchange rates) in debt funding from InnoVen Capital.
InnoVen said in a statement the investment in Mumbai-based boAt is in line with its strategy of backing consumer brands disrupting their respective categories.
“It’s a perfect case study on how to build a new-age brand, through superior customer insights, effective marketing and relentless execution,” InnoVen Capital India CEO Ashish Sharma said, adding that the startup is one of the high-performers in its portfolio.
Separately, boAt co-founder Sameer Mehta said the debt from InnoVen will help the company in its product expansion phase.
boAt was set up in 2016 by Mehta and Aman Gupta. The company’s product catalogue includes headphones, earphones, wearables, speakers, and related accessories such as chargers and cables.
In a separate statement, boAt claimed it has a 20% share in the earwear segment according to data from the International Data Corporation (IDC). It claims to have generated more than Rs 500 crore in gross revenue for 2019-20.
According to VCCEdge, the data research arm of Mosaic Digital, the company registered net sales of Rs 239.44 crore for the financial year ended March 2019 and a profit after tax of Rs 8.73 crore.
The company had received a commitment of Rs 20 crore in venture debt from the investment arm of Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal last year, according to media reports at the time. In May 2018, boAt had received Rs 6 crore ($900,000) in funding from early-stage venture firm Fireside Ventures.
InnoVen Capital
The firm was set up in 2008 and offers venture debt, acquisition finance, growth-stage loans and syndication. InnoVen says it has so far completed over 250 transactions with more than 180 startups.
In May, it committed Rs 13 crore to Diptab Ventures Pvt. Ltd, which operates last-mile-based intra-city logistics marketplace LetsTransport. Also that month, InnoVen took part in a Series C funding round of around Rs 98.38 crore in BigFoot Retail Solutions Pvt. Ltd, which operates e-commerce-focussed logistics-technology firm Shiprocket.
In February, VCCircle reported that InnoVen had provided venture debt to a healthcare company that had last raised a significant equity funding round less than three years ago. Also in February, InnoVen contributed to a mixed equity and debt round in Sunshine Teahouse Pvt. Ltd, which operates tea-focussed café chain Chaayos.
Other companies that InnoVen has invested in include OYO Rooms, Swiggy, Byju’s, DailyHunt and FirstCry.
