D2C Brands

Mamaearth, boAt, and Noise: How India’s D2C Champions Are Chasing Profitability in 2026

India’s direct-to-consumer (D2C) sector has produced some of the country’s most recognisable consumer brands over the past five years. Mamaearth, boAt, and Noise—once

Aditi Singh 22 hours ago · 4 min read

India’s direct-to-consumer (D2C) sector has produced some of the country’s most recognisable consumer brands over the past five years. Mamaearth, boAt, and Noise—once scrappy startups selling through Instagram and Amazon—have grown into household names with revenues exceeding hundreds of crores. But as these companies enter their next growth phase, all three face a common and existential challenge: the transition from top-line growth to sustained profitability. In 2026, each is pursuing a different strategy to crack this code, and their collective efforts are reshaping expectations for what D2C brands can achieve in the Indian market.

Mamaearth: Public Scrutiny, Private Determination

Honasa Consumer, the parent company of Mamaearth and brands like The Derma Co. and Aqualogica, went public in November 2023 on the NSE and BSE. The IPO was met with mixed reception: while the listing day saw modest gains, the subsequent quarters brought intense scrutiny of the company’s financials. Investors questioned the sustainability of Mamaearth’s growth, given its heavy reliance on digital advertising spend and the commodity nature of many of its product categories.

CEO Varun Alagh has responded with a multi-pronged profitability strategy. The company has systematically reduced its customer acquisition cost by shifting advertising spend from performance marketing (Google and Meta ads) toward brand building through television, outdoor, and influencer marketing—channels that are less expensive per impression and build longer-term brand equity. The results have been encouraging: Honasa’s EBITDA margin improved to 8.2 per cent in Q3 FY2026, up from 4.5 per cent a year earlier.

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Mamaearth’s offline expansion has also contributed to margin improvement. Retail sales, which carry no platform commission, now account for 38 per cent of total revenue—up from 22 per cent in FY2024. The company’s 800-plus exclusive brand outlets, combined with distribution through 1.2 lakh general trade outlets, are providing the scale and margin buffer that its online channels cannot.

boAt: From Headphones to Lifestyle Empire

boAt, founded by Aman Gupta and Sameer Mehta, has become India’s leading audio and wearables brand with an estimated revenue of ₹4,200 crore in FY2025. The company’s journey from selling affordable earphones on Amazon to becoming a lifestyle brand endorsed by Bollywood and cricket celebrities is one of Indian D2C’s most compelling stories. But profitability has been elusive: boAt reported a net loss of ₹79 crore in FY2024, prompting questions about whether the company can convert its massive revenue base into bottom-line performance.

The answer, according to the company, lies in premiumisation and category expansion. In 2026, boAt has launched a premium audio line under the sub-brand “boAt Nirvana,” with products priced between ₹5,000 and ₹15,000—a significant step up from its core ₹500-₹2,000 range. These premium products carry gross margins of 45-50 per cent, compared to 28-32 per cent for the mass-market range. The premium segment, while smaller in unit volume, is expected to contribute disproportionately to profitability.

boAt is also diversifying beyond audio. The company has entered the smart home category with wireless speakers and smart displays, and is developing an ecosystem play around its wearables platform that includes health monitoring features and integration with third-party fitness apps. This ecosystem strategy is modeled on the playbook that Xiaomi used to expand from smartphones into a broader consumer electronics empire—a comparison that boAt’s leadership actively embraces.

Noise: The Wearables Challenger

Noise, co-founded by Amit Khatri and Gaurav Khatri, has established itself as India’s second-largest wearables brand after boAt, with particularly strong market share in the smartwatch segment. The company shipped over 12 million units in 2025 and claims a 28 per cent market share in India’s smartwatch category, according to IDC data.

Noise’s path to profitability centres on two strategies. The first is vertical integration: the company has invested in in-house product design and direct manufacturing partnerships with Chinese ODMs, reducing its cost of goods sold and improving product differentiation. The second is a software play: NoiseFit, the companion app for Noise smartwatches, has become a health and wellness platform with 15 million monthly active users, offering features like heart rate monitoring, sleep tracking, and AI-powered health insights.

The NoiseFit ecosystem opens up subscription and data monetisation opportunities that are unavailable to pure hardware companies. In Q1 2026, Noise launched NoiseFit Pro, a subscription tier at ₹99 per month that offers advanced health analytics, personalised fitness coaching, and telehealth consultations. While early, the subscription model has attracted 500,000 paying users and could become a significant margin contributor as the user base scales.

The Profitability Imperative

The common thread connecting Mamaearth, boAt, and Noise is the recognition that revenue growth without profitability is no longer sufficient in the post-2022 investment environment. Public market investors (in Mamaearth’s case), IPO-track investors (for boAt and Noise), and the broader startup ecosystem are all demanding clear pathways to sustained profitability.

This demand is healthy. It is forcing D2C brands to move beyond the “spend ₹1.50 to earn ₹1.00” growth model that characterised the boom years and to build genuinely defensible businesses with strong unit economics, brand loyalty, and diversified revenue streams. The D2C brands that emerge from this phase as profitable, self-sustaining enterprises will have earned their place as permanent fixtures in the Indian consumer landscape. Those that don’t will join the long list of startups that burned bright but briefly.

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Aditi Singh

Aditi Singh is an Editor at Daily Tips covering lifestyle, education, and social trends. With a keen eye for stories that resonate with young India, Aditi brings thoughtful analysis and clear writing to topics ranging from career guidance and exam preparation to social media culture and everyday life hacks. Her reporting is grounded in thorough research and a genuine curiosity about the forces shaping modern Indian society.

Aditi Singh

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