The pitch deck, one imagines, must have been something.
Just over a month after Aman Gupta—the boAt cofounder and Shark Tank India fixture—announced a new venture called OFF/BEAT Studios with all the specifics of a fortune cookie, he's closed ₹100 crore (approximately $11.4 million) in seed funding. Bessemer Venture Partners led the round, announced April 7, at a valuation of around ₹450 crore according to unnamed sources speaking to The Economic Times. The company hasn't confirmed that number.
What does OFF/BEAT Studios actually do? That remains unclear.
Corporate filings show the entity was incorporated on March 9—a week after Gupta's cryptic "Aman 2.0" teaser on March 3. That makes this among the fastest seed rounds in recent memory for a freshly-registered Indian company, and certainly one of the largest. The median seed check in India has been bobbing around $1 million to $2 million, depending on whose data you trust. This is ten times that.
Picking Partners, Not Just Paychecks
Gupta insists this wasn't about the money. "I didn't raise capital because I needed the cheque," he wrote on LinkedIn, a statement that likely raised eyebrows among the many founders who very much do need the check. Instead, he framed the decision as strategic: Bessemer brought a "global perspective" and expertise in "technology and AI," with a portfolio spanning Anthropic, Shopify, Canva, and LinkedIn.
That AI emphasis keeps surfacing. Gupta has mentioned it repeatedly in scattered interviews, though he's offered no detail on how OFF/BEAT plans to deploy it, or in service of what product. Media descriptions waver between calling the company a "studio" and a "venture studio"—labels elastic enough to mean almost anything.
Bessemer, for its part, announced a $350 million India-focused fund in March of last year, targeting AI, SaaS, fintech, and consumer tech. Vishal Gupta and Anant Vidur Puri lead the firm's India operations. Legal advisers Khaitan & Co worked Bessemer's side of the deal.
Stealth Mode as Strategy—or Uncertainty?
OFF/BEAT Studios maintains a registered address in Hauz Khas, New Delhi, a Twitter handle, and a website. None of these reveal a business model, product roadmap, or go-to-market strategy. The company hasn't disclosed other investors beyond Bessemer's lead, and Gupta has declined to elaborate on the specifics in public statements.
Perhaps that's intentional positioning. Or perhaps—this being a venture incorporated less than six weeks ago—there simply aren't many specifics yet.
Either way, the funding environment makes the round notable. India's seed-stage capital dropped roughly 30% year-over-year to around $1.1 billion through late last year, according to TechCrunch, as investors grew choosier. Inc42's mid-year funding report pegged the median seed ticket at $1 million, effectively flat. Tracxn put it slightly higher at $1.92 million in early data.
Against that backdrop, a ₹100 crore seed raise suggests Bessemer is betting heavily on Gupta himself—his network, his brand equity from boAt and Shark Tank, his ability to recruit. The "what" appears secondary, at least for now.
Leaving boAt Behind (Mostly)
Gupta stepped back from operational duties at Imagine Marketing—the parent of boAt—last year, transitioning to a non-executive director role. The consumer electronics brand he helped build has been reshuffling its leadership, installing Gaurav Nayyar as CEO and Sameer Mehta as executive director, while navigating a prolonged and somewhat turbulent IPO process.
SEBI approved boAt's confidential draft prospectus in September, followed by an updated filing in October that trimmed the proposed issue size to ₹1,500 crore. Then came a hiccup: the auditor flagged discrepancies in December's updated documents. The listing timeline, once imminent-seeming, has grown hazier.
Gupta's departure from day-to-day operations predated those complications, but the timing is worth noting. He retains the public profile—Shark Tank keeps him visible, and his LinkedIn following remains robust. What he's building next, though, is anyone's guess.
For Bessemer, that uncertainty may be part of the appeal. Blank canvases, after all, leave room for ambition.
