Indian Consumers Have Shed Colonial Hangover of Foreign Brands: boAt's Aman Gupta

Indians have come out of a colonial hangover of the past and are now buying Indian brands as well, said Aman Gupta, co-founder and CMO of Indian wearables brand boAt.

“When we (boAt) were starting off, there were not any Indian brands. We all were in a colonial hangover. We used to like Louis Philippe and Allen Solly. They were all Indian brands. But it was a time when Indians used to hate Indian brands. They were not respected,” Gupta said while speaking at the Convergence India Expo in New Delhi.

Founded in 2016, boAt has so far raised over $170mn, according to Tracxn.

Emphasising that India has come a long way from that time, he said, “There was a company called Sennheiser in our category (consumer electronics) and they were doing very well. But I don’t think that people in India buy too much of Sennheiser. They have a wonderful quality but now we do much better than Sennheiser in India.”

boAt is one of the top wearables brands in India, with a market share of over 32% as of third quarter of 2024, according to Statista.

Gupta said that electronics manufacturing in India is growing rapidly, which was not the case earlier. He said that even boAt itself was not keen to manufacture its products in India, adding that people encouraged the company to produce locally.

“Three years back, we stared to make products in India and I proudly say that 70% of our products are made in India now”, he said.

Gupta said that India is market for mass premium and affordable luxury. “boAt is also build on the same principal—affordable yet aspirational.”

He said that over the years, the business and entrepreneurship landscape of the country has transformed and doing business is not considered a bad thing now.

“There was a time when businessmen (word) used to be negative. They were considered thieves. Now, today’s youth want to be entrepreneurs. Things have changed totally. The country now celebrates Valentine Day but also the Startup Day,” he said.

Gupta said earlier India did not have an ecosystem for electronics manufacturing but now there are government schemes to support electronics.

“There was no electronics manufacturing in India earlier. But today you see we have an ecosystem. There are schemes like PLI. Companies like Zetwerk and Dixon are here. Now, some companies are making products in India for the world. Apple’s manufacturing is also coming here. They are exporting iPhones,” Gupta said.

Under the Scheme for Promotion of Manufacturing of Electronic Components and Semiconductors (SPECS), the government is promoting domestic manufacturing of electronic components and semiconductors.

Notified in 2020, the scheme provides a financial incentive of 25% on capital expenditure for manufacturing units involved in electronic components, semiconductor/display fabrication units and ATMP units.