Why is Aman Gupta’s BoAt failing?
The headline makes for great clickbait, but the reality is far more nuanced.
BoAt has been IPO-bound for nearly four years. For a company that has positioned itself as India’s flagship consumer tech brand, repeated listing delays signal either governance gaps or a lack of confidence in market timing. Talking about governance gaps, Statutory auditors had flagged mismatches between quarterly returns filed with lenders and the company’s books of account.
In September 2025, Aman Gupta transitioned to a non-executive director role on BoAt’s board. Then, in March 2026, Gupta announced a new venture called Offbeat Studios, describing it as Aman 2.0. Investors don’t like ambiguity. When a high-profile founder steps back and launches something new while his flagship company is preparing for an IPO, it raises uncomfortable questions. Gupta still owns a significant stake, but perception matters more than reality in public markets.
The company grew more than fivefold between FY20 and FY25, but that growth curve has now flattened. Q1 FY26 showed an 11% revenue increase to ₹628 crore, which is respectable but nowhere near the triple-digit growth that defined BoAt’s early years. The audio market is maturing. Competition from brands like Noise, Boult, and international players is intense. BoAt’s diversification into wearables and smartwatches is working, but not fast enough to offset the slowdown in core audio.
Search BoAt service on social media, and you’ll find a flood of complaints. On Shark Tank India Season 5, a pitcher openly called BoAt rings “third grade”, a comment that visibly offended Gupta, who responded: “You said we just focus on fashion and style, but that’s not true. Please check the data”
Quality perception is subjective, but when a brand selling 34% of all personal audio devices in India by volume has a customer service engine that feels automated and unresponsive, that volume advantage becomes a liability. Every defective unit creates a loud, unhappy customer.
BoAt turned profitable in FY25, after the Co. cut advertising expenses by 34% YoY in Q1 FY26, down to ₹53 crore. That’s a classic pre-IPO profitability move. Trim marketing, show bottom-line health, and go public, but marketing is how BoAt built its brand. Sustained cuts could erode mindshare, especially in a category where new entrants are spending aggressively.
I think BoAt is NOT failing, but struggling to transition from a high-growth startup to a mature, publicly scalable enterprise.