Global audio pioneer Bose has joined the homegrown, bootstrapped wearables firm as a strategic investor. The investor purchased a minority investment in the company as part of a series-A financing, indicating the company’s intention to acquire more capital.
Khatri said that with the investment in place, Bose and Noise would collaborate to develop in the audio market, bolstering its research and design and utilising Bose’s distribution to grow into new areas.
“With this investment, you will see a lot of collaboration happening in innovation in our space which will help Noise to level up the audio experience for consumers in India, which means, as a brand, it will also help us move up the value chain,” Khatri said, adding that the wearables brand will be leveraging Bose’s intellectual properties for developing its products.
“As we looked at the opportunity to reach more people with the benefits of our technology in India, investing in noise became an obvious choice,” said Nicholas Smith, senior vice president, strategy and business development at Bose.
The development comes after Noise revealed that its FY23 net profit plunged to Rs 88 lakh, from Rs 35.5 crore in FY22, on account of a substantial rise in expenses.
Despite having a flat 0.6 per cent year-over-year rise in shipments, Noise came in second place overall in the September quarter wearables sweepstakes with a 10.8 per cent market share. Moreover, according to IDC statistics, it lost its top spot in the wristwatch market to Fire-Boltt and dropped to fourth place in the truly wireless earbuds category with a 7.7 per cent market share that increased by 20.4 per cent annually.
