Boat: the Indian startup scripts a

revolutionizing growth strategy

Sheela Bhargava and Parul Gupta

Introduction

$$Plug into nirvana$,$ this tagline depicting its philosophy has served Boat well for the past

five years. Having begun in the phone accessories business in $2016,$ this Delhi $($India$)$

based company gradually expanded into the consumer electronics industry. The logo of the

company is a picture of a boat. When asked why they named an electronic accessories

brand $$boAt$,$ co$-$founder Aman Gupta explained, $$when you take a Boat, you leave

everything behind. You plug into a new zone$.$ Setting aside the philosophical meaning, the

brand literally plugged in to a new zone by surviving the killer waves of a hypercompetitive

market dominated by global and Chinese players $($Boat Lifestyle, $2019).$

The growing smartphone and electronics ecosystem in India gave rise to accessories such

as smartwatches and headphones, products that have become highly popular amongst

youngsters. Boat Lifestyle, a Delhi$-$based Indian consumer electronics brand, leveraged the

shifting millennial lifestyle trend by offering a wide range of lifestyle products. Boat is a

startup $[1]$ that produces and markets audio$-$focused electronic gadgets, such as true

wireless and smart audio, earbuds $($Airdopes$),$ headphones, home audio equipment,

smartwatches, speakers, travel chargers, premium cables and a number of other mobile

phone accessories. By $2021,$ Boat had become one of the most popular local brands in

India. It had already achieved sales of an impressive $1$bn rupees in its third year. In the

fiscal year $201920[2],$ it registered gross revenue of over $`500[3]$ crores $[4]($US$$69$m$)$

$($Livemint$,2020$; see Exhibit $1).$ On the sales front, Boat$$s next target was to become a Rs

$1,000$ crores $($US$$137$m$)$ brand over the next three years $($Boat Lifestyle, $2020$c$).$

Such an ambitious goal would not be an easy feat, as the Indian consumer electronics

market was already flooded with Chinese, Japanese, American, German and many local

players, with approximately $200$ brands vying for consumer attention. Boat was competing

with already established international giants Samsung, Apple, Sony, OnePlus, Realme,

Huawei, Xiaomi and Fitbit, on the one hand, and a host of local players on the other $($Gawas$,$

$2021).$ In addition to Boat, other prominent homegrown companies in this market included

Zebronics, Portronics, iBall, Noise and ICCON $($Rakheja$,2021).$ Achieving a revenue of over

Rs $500$ crores within four years of its establishment was no small achievement but attaining

a target of Rs $1,000$ crores $($US$$137$m$)$ by $2024$ requires an altogether different game plan.

Although the future of Boat in India appeared to be bright in terms of revenue, several

significant problems plagued the company, and it had many other tough tasks ahead of it$.$

The main threat the company faced came from smartphone vendors such as Realme and

Xiaomi, which had expanded their accessories business in India. Retailers such as

Amazon, Flipkart and Croma had also expanded their in$-$house private labels in recent

years by launching earphones and other mobile accessories $($Singh$,2021).$