ET Startup Awards 2022: Noise wins the Bootstrap Champ award for its scale, profits

Nexxbase Marketing, which runs Noise, a maker of smart wearables, and Himalayan Organics, a plant-based supplement brand, stood out as the top two contenders.

Then, after a long discussion and voting, the jury
chose Gurugram-based Noise for its profit numbers and scale. With more than Rs 800 crore in revenue and Rs 40 crore in profits, it was clear that the jury could not ignore the company’s outstanding financials despite challenges around China manufacturing and the low defensibility of the business.

“While there is a China sourcing factor, being bootstrapped and taking it to $100 million in scale along with a profit, it is not an easy task at all for an Indian company,” said one of the members of the jury during the discussion.

In 2017, Gaurav and Amit Khatri were selling smartphone accessories across online marketplaces such as Amazon. The smartphone accessories segment was becoming increasingly commoditised with cheap unbranded products flooding the ecommerce marketplaces. This is when the Khatri brothers realised they could not really differentiate and build a brand in that space and decided to pivot to selling smart wearable accessories like smartwatches and wireless audio products.

“For a bootstrapped business to succeed, you need to constantly operate with unfettered belief, but when your actions get externally acclaimed and validated, it’s like a shot in the arm to do even better,” said Amit Khatri.

Discover the stories of your interest

Since then the startup, founded in 2014, has grown by several folds. In FY22, Noise clocked Rs 885 crore in revenue, up from Rs 24 crore in FY18 and without any losses in between. The company claims it is the largest smartwatch brand in India, with one in every four smartwatches sold in the country being a Noise device.

The company says frugality is in its DNA, with “low-cost structures and prudent spends” allowing the brand to grow by 240% over the last two years.

“Noise has hit such a scale in a short time while being bootstrapped… The resourcefulness and the scrappiness that they showed, given the commoditisation of smartphone accessories early on, and being able to pivot successfully into the new brand with a lot of customer love make it incredible…,” said jury member Sriharsha Majety, cofounder & CEO of Swiggy.

Noise designs its products in-house and outsources manufacturing to third-party vendors in China and India, keeping its pricing highly competitive. It sells through online and offline channels.

Another juror, Lizzie Chapman, cofounder and CEO, ZestMoney, said, “It has been incredible to see Noise’s story and how far they have come while bootstrapping. They have been ground up hustlers. In many ways the story of Noise represents India’s entrepreneurial spirit which is about being frugal and scrappy, something that has gotten diluted because of all the capital raising. But it’s because of companies such as Noise and what they can achieve that I’m betting big on India’s entrepreneurial story.”

Other contenders

Flexiple

Flexiple founders, Karthik (M), Hrishikesh (R)

Flexiple is an online marketplace connecting software developers and designers with companies. The company hasn’t raised funds as it feels it has a monetisation model in place, charging clients a commission based on the total value of a project.

The White Willow

ETtech

Meghna Jain, The White Willow

The White Willow is a D2C ecommerce brand that manufactures and sells pillows. It specialises in a product that is largely ignored by mattress makers and makes customised pillows for different use cases and ailments, including travel pillows and back-wedge pillows.

Himalayan Organics

ETtech

Suditi Sharma and Vaibhav Raghuvanshi, Himalayan Organics

Himalayan Organics focuses on selling plant-based natural supplements and nutraceuticals made from herbs and plants from the Himalayas. The company targets millennial and Gen-Z customers and claims to have over 135 unique products that prevent or treat over 50 ailments. Around 75% of Himalayan Organics’ sales come from e-marketplaces.

Trackier

ETtech

Faizan Ayubi, CEO- Trackier

Trackier is a SaaS startup providing adtech solutions to the gaming, finance, and e-commerce industries. It offers marketing solutions automating manual tasks in more than 20 countries. Trackier’s software helps companies track metrics such as conversions from various digital advertising platforms, including Google, Facebook, Dailyhunt and Times Internet.