boAt parent to acquire Singapore-based KaHa for health wearable play

boAt KaHa
boAt o-founder Aman Gupta | Image courtesy boAt

Imagine Marketing Private Limited, the parent company of India’s leading audio and hearable brand, boAt, said it will be acquiring Singapore-based KaHa Pte Ltd, an end-to-end smart IoT product development company to augment its wearable product offerings in the country.

The acquisition will allow boAt parent to boost its efforts in the space of wearable including the concept, design, electronic firmware, algorithm development, Android/ iOS applications and new feature integration.

boAt is the leader in the true wireless audio or hearable space in India and wants to replicate the success in the health wearable space. The heath wearable space already has top players like Realme, Xiaomi, Samsung, OnePlus and Apple across price points.

The wearables (smartwatch and activity bands) market in India is expected to grow more than 10 times to $2 billion in size by 2025 from around $0.2bn in 2018.

The boAt brand has become one of the top 2 players in the smartwatch category with over 20% market share, as per market watchers.

This acquisition will also enable the company to scale up its smart and holistic wellness wearables platform. The company said that the acquisition will allow it to create a “vibrant ecosystem for the Indian consumer.”

“With chronic lifestyle diseases on a rise, consumers are getting increasingly conscious of their ways of living. Wearable devices that help track activities, monitor sleep patterns, health indicators and calories burn are therefore gaining popularity with consumers with an active lifestyle to keep them healthy and fit,” Sameer Mehta, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer, Imagine Marketing Pvt. Ltd said in a statement.

KaHa’s technology-focused platform for wearables through patented AI and ML capabilities will allow Imagine marketing to capture aspects including vitals, fitness, social and mental health along with providing lifestyle features like gamification and enabling payments.

“By leveraging KaHa’s capabilities, we will be able to create a smart wearables ecosystem with powerful functionality at affordable prices that truly benefit the consumers,” he added.

Founded in 2015, KaHa has its operations across Singapore, India and China. KaHa Pte Ltd has a patented and encrypted technology stack and has applied for over 30 patents.

Kaia also has over 90 dedicated professionals and domain experts.

The acquisition is expected to augment IMPL’s capabilities to introduce technologically advanced products and shorten the lead time to have an ecosystem play in the wearables and IoT segment.

“We are delighted to become part of the boAt family. Our DNA lies in cutting edge product development and building smart IoT products that solve consumer problems. We look forward to working with the boAt team to make wearable technology an enriching and life-changing part of the consumer’s everyday life and building a vibrant wearables ecosystem,” Pawan Gandhi, CEO and Co-founder of KaHa Pte Ltd, said in the joint statement.

Imagine Marketing said that it aims to participate in a broader lifestyle-oriented play in India’s wearables ecosystem. It has been increasing its R&D focus through boAt Labs with a dedicated 25-member team having expertise in various elements of the development of audio and wearable devices.

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