Audio and wearables market in India growing at good pace, says Aman Gupta

New Delhi The audio and wearables market in India is growing at a good pace, driving incremental revenue and production ramp-up plans for boAt, and the company's international blueprint will be set in motion only from FY25 onwards, its co-founder Aman Gupta has said.

The overseas plans are currently in the making, but for now, the company is determined to cement its position in the smartwatches segment, its biggest focus this year. "For this year, our focus is not international...we are putting (building) blocks so that by next year, we should start looking at international...This year, we are trying to test the waters with some markets," Gupta told PTI. Overall, boAt is targeting gross sales of about Rs 5,000 crore in FY24. "The market is growing at a very good pace. In audio, we are the market leaders, while in wearables, we are competing with different players and competition keeps changing. The smartwatch market is growing at a high, good pace, and that is our biggest focus now, this year," he said. For FY23, its total sales were over Rs 4,000 crore.

When boAt entered the audio segment, there were almost 200 brands, but the company cut through the clutter and over the last 10 quarters cemented its lead. "So, when we do it we do it well," Gupta emphasised. Unlike other players in the market, boAt has its own platform play, he said, adding "We have invested in KaHa technologies (end-to-end smart IoT product development company) to own our platform, design-wise, style-wise, make-in-India wise...everything is getting sorted," Gupta said. "This is just the beginning," he promised and added, "We will come strong in smartwatches, as well". Asked about the overseas market that seems to hold potential, Gupta cited markets like Bangladesh, Nepal, Indonesia and the UAE. "Still, it is too early to talk about international plans," he said.

On the manufacturing scale-up, Gupta said that at present in the watch segment, 75-80 per cent of boAt products are made in India, whereas the same for audio products stands at 30-50 per cent.