With Indian business conglomerate Tata group foraying aggressively into new-age tech sector, things on the acquisition side seem to be heating up again. Titan, the premier watch manufacturer in India, and one of Tata group’s ‘crown jewel’ companies, is looking to acquire Indian wearables brand ‘Noise’, according to a Livemint report.
The decision is not yet set in stone and is likely to value the eight-year-old Noise at about ₹700- ₹800 crores. If talks do go through, Titan will become even more of a formidable presence in the market. It is already the fifth-largest integrated own brand watch manufacturer in the world, and Noise had the greatest market share (26%) of the Indian smartwatch market in Q3 2021. This would also help Titan establish a stronger presence in the larger wearables market.
Founded in 2014 by Amit and Gaurav Khatri founded the company, Noise ventured into the wearables market as the demand in India started to rise. It has come a long way from its initial days of making cases and accessories for smartphones and launched Noise SHOTS, its first earbuds, in 2016.
Today, it ranks among the top five brands in India in wireless earphones and captured the lion’s share for six consecutive quarters (up to the third quarter of 2021) when it comes to market share. Apart from earbuds, it also makes other products such as smartwatches, Bluetooth headphones, Bluetooth speakers, and others.
Its strong performance has caught the eye of Titan, which has been building up its wearables portfolio and acqui-hired smart devices maker Hug Innovations in February 2020.
The wearables sector, which includes smartwatches, earbuds, and wristbands, clocked a year-over-year growth of 93.8% in the third quarter of the year and shipped 23.8 million units. Overall, the shipments of smartwatches and wristbands grew by over 2.4 times last year, according to data by IDC India.
