Aman Gupta, co-founder of boAt, is launching OFF/BEAT, a venture studio focused on building and scaling new startups. The company has secured ₹100 crore in funding from Bessemer Venture Partners. This move marks Gupta's transition from operational leadership at boAt to a new role in incubating creator-led businesses.
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Aman Gupta, widely known for building the wearables brand boAt into a market leader, is launching a new venture named OFF/BEAT. This new enterprise is structured as a venture studio, a model that focuses on creating and building multiple companies from the ground up rather than investing in existing ones.
Strategic Shift After boAt
This development follows Gupta’s decision to step down from his executive role as the Chief Marketing Officer at boAt. He continues to remain a significant shareholder and a member of the board of directors at the company. By moving away from day-to-day operations at his established brand, Gupta is now directing his focus toward a broader ecosystem of creator-led businesses.
The venture has raised ₹100 crore in initial funding from Bessemer Venture Partners, a prominent global venture capital firm. According to the company, this partnership is intended to provide more than just capital. Gupta emphasized that the goal is to leverage the speed, network, and strategic guidance provided by experienced partners to build businesses that cater to evolving consumer identities and the influence of artificial intelligence in the modern market.
Understanding the Venture Studio Model
Unlike traditional venture capital firms that primarily provide funding to startups, a venture studio actively participates in the company-building process. This usually involves ideation, providing shared resources, recruiting talent, and scaling operations from inception. For investors and market observers, this signifies a shift in how new businesses are formed, with an emphasis on shared institutional support rather than isolated entrepreneurial efforts.
Anant Vidur Puri, a partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, noted that the investment was driven by Gupta’s track record in understanding shifts in consumer aspiration and quality expectations in the Indian market. The success of this model will largely depend on the venture studio’s ability to successfully identify, build, and sustain profitable companies in a competitive landscape.
Investors may monitor the progress of OFF/BEAT to see how this studio model performs in the Indian startup ecosystem. Key areas to track in the future will include the types of businesses being incubated, the speed at which these new companies reach market viability, and the overall capital allocation efficiency of the studio as it begins to build its portfolio.