boAt's Revenue Exceeds Rs.1,500 Cr

Boat's Revenue Crosses Rs.1,500 Cr in Fy21 With Just Rs 14 Crore Being Spent on Wages

BoAt, a startup in the field of consumer electronics, is one of the top makers of wearables and audio accessories in India in the past few years. BoAt is also planning to announce its first public offering in the near future with a price of more than $1.4 billion; it has made a profit and crossed the Rs.1,500 crore in revenue during FY21.

boAt has recorded a 2.2X increase in operating revenue which increased from 700.44 million in FY20, to 1,511.7 million in FY21. the company's annual financial report with the MCA exhibits.  The wireless earphones and headphones comprised the biggest product category by sales accounting for 62.7 percent of the company's operating earnings in FY21. The sales increased by 2.5X to 947.4 crore in FY21, up from just Rs 375.7 crore in FY20.

The Mumbai-based firm creates the products it sells in India however its production and assembly take place in China. The cost of purchasing its stocks for trading is the most significant expense that the firm has to pay and accounts for almost 73% of the total annual cost.

Also read: Dunzo Raises $240 Million Led by Reliance Retail

The company has made $100 million through an equity round that was led by Warburg Pincus at the start of Q4 FY21. It also has plans to move its manufacturing operations to India. The company's consumer electronics division intends to make use of this Indian government's production tied incentive(PLI) program.

The seven-year-old company is focused on promoting its products extensively online. Its advertising promotion costs were the second-highest cost center for boAt which accounted for 10.3 percent of boAt's total annual costs. These expenses nearly doubled to 147 crores in FY21, up from just Rs 51 crore in FY20.

Major operations functions, like production and after-sales outsourcing, boAt operates with a small staff of employees, and staff expenses occupying just 1percent of its annual expenses. The cost of employee benefits increased by 125.7 percentage YoY to 14.31 billion (including director remuneration that is around two crores).

The company that was backed by Qualcomm also offered a stock buyback at the period that ended in March 2021 that amounted to about around 140 crores. Co-founders Aman Gupta, as well as Sameer Mehta, were among the largest recipients of this purchase receiving a bit more than 81 percent (i.e. approximately Rs 113.6 crore, or 56.8 crore per) from the purchase amount

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boAt has had a solid financial performance during FY21 and was the first electronic consumer Direct to Consumer (D2C) startup to reach the Rs. 1,500 crore mark in revenue. Despite the aforementioned pandemic, boAt has grown rapidly, with an increase of 61% in profits. Contrary to many companies in the late stage and growth stages boAt has been able to achieve this level of revenue with minimal expense for employee's wages or other, non-profit benefits -- 14.31 crore.

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Dunzo Raises $240 Million Led by Reliance Retail

Quick commerce company Dunzo has received $240 million in the latest round of funding that was led by Reliance Retail Ventures Limited. This round also saw the participation of existing investors Lightbox, Lightrock, 3L Capital, and Alteria Capital.

Dunzo was reported to be engaged in discussions with Reliance for the past three or four months regarding a possible agreement. There were reports in the media suggesting that the company was in discussions together with Tata Group, Swiggy, and Zomato to discuss a fresh round. But, the talks did not occur.

On the other hand, this deal with Reliance might be seen as a shock, given Reliance Group's history of making outright acquisitions (Netmeds, Milkbasket) or fairly moderate valuations. Even entering into companies that could be under some sort of strain (the current Future Retail buy). FOMO might have hit Reliance at last if you're in the market for a quick trade.

Also read: AgroStar Secured $70 Million in its Series D Financing Round

The round is in which Reliance Retail has invested $200 million to purchase a 25.8 percent share in Bengaluru's company on a fully diluted basis. The valuation of the Google-backed firm is up to $775 million. Based on Fintrackr's estimates, it was valued at just over $300 million at the time of its March launch of last year.

According to Dunzo, the capital is to expand Dunzo's goal of becoming the most efficient and quick-to-market business in India, which will allow the delivery of necessities in a matter of minutes through a system of small warehouses and growing its business segment to provide logistics to local retailers within Indian cities.

As part of the collaboration, Dunzo will provide hyperlocal logistics to the retail stores run through Reliance Retail and will also enable last-mile deliveries for JioMart's merchant's network. Dunzo introduced its instant delivery model, 'Dunzo Daily, in Bengaluru at the beginning of this year. The service is currently available across seven cities; the firm is planning to expand its speedy commerce model to fifteen cities.

The fiscal year ended the 31st of March, 2021 where Dunzo reported its profits from operations to increase by 66.5 percent to 45.8 crores from 27.5 crores it earned in FY20. The Kabeer Biswas-led company was able to cut its loss by 33.3 percent from 338.4 million in FY20 to 225.7 million in FY21.

Also read: Zepto on Its Way to Raise $250 Million

The fast commerce market is growing in India, where Zomato-backed Zepto BlinkIt (formerly Grofers), Swiggy, and Ola are already expanding their operations. Swiggy has recently announced plans to invest $750 million into Swiggy Instamart to focus on rapid commerce, while BlinkIt is said to be seeking additional funding from Zomato. Zepto, a grocery delivery service that can be delivered in ten minutes. Zepto also secured 100 million in funding to increase its coverage to several cities in India.

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