As boAt’s date for IPO filing draws near, the company’s rising attrition and leadership changes have raised many doubts about the future.
Jayant Mundhra, a market commentator and author, shed light on some of boAt’s issues by citing the company’s updated Draft Red Herring Prospectus (UDRHP). The document shared that boAt’s two co-founders — Sameer Ashok Mehta and Aman Gupta — stepped down from their executive positions only 29 days before the company filed for IPO.
Previously, Mehta had been serving as boAt’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) while Gupta was the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). They have since left those positions and are now serving as Executive Director and Gupta as Non-Executive Director, respectively. In their current roles, the two founders are drawing no salary or sitting fees. Previously, as executives in FY25, they had each drawn a salary of ₹.5 crore.
“The founders are distancing themselves from operational responsibility right before going public,” Mundhra shared, calling the move a “calculated pre-IPO pivot” rather than a planned succession. Mundhra also talked about the steadily rising attrition at boAt and what it might say about the company.
As per the DHRP, boAt’s full-time employee attrition stands at 34.18%. When compared to FY24’s 28.14% and FY23’s 27.09%, the steep rise in attrition showcases a pattern that has raised many eyebrows.
“This is not normal turnover. This is a mass exodus,” Mundhra said, stating that the company’s “internal culture is completely broken.” He also shed light on how boAt’s large employee stock option (ESOP) pool has failed to retain staff. As per Mundhra, this could indicate that employees are either “miserable despite paper wealth” or they “have no faith in the future value of the company’s stock.”
Highlighting the rising concerns surrounding boAt’s numbers and employee behaviour, Mundhra termed it all as a “parade of glaring red flags” for potential investors.
boAt reported a net profit of more than ₹60 crore for FY25 compared to a net loss of ₹80 crore in the same period last year, primarily due to product innovation and cost control. Consolidated revenue dropped from ₹3,122 crore in FY24 to ₹3,098 crore in FY25.
Last month, boAt slashed its IPO size from ₹2,000 crore to ₹1,500 crore. According to its UDRHP, the company aims to raise ₹1,500 crore through its IPO, with ₹500 crore of fresh shares and an offer for sale (OFS) worth ₹1,000 crore by existing investors.
