  Photometric and spectroscopic analyses of the intermediate-luminosity Type Ib
supernova (SN) 2015ap and of the heavily reddened Type Ib SN~2016bau are
discussed. Photometric properties of the two SNe, such as colour evolution,
bolometric luminosity, photospheric radius, temperature, and velocity
evolution, are also constrained. The ejecta mass, synthesised nickel mass, and
kinetic energy of the ejecta are calculated from their light-curve analysis. We
also model and compare the spectra of SN~2015ap and SN~2016bau at various
stages of their evolution. The P~Cygni profiles of various lines present in the
spectra are used to determine the velocity evolution of the ejecta. To account
for the observed photometric and spectroscopic properties of the two SNe, we
have computed 12\,$M_\odot$ zero-age main sequence (ZAMS) star models and
evolved them until the onset of core collapse using the publicly available
stellar-evolution code {\tt MESA}. Synthetic explosions were produced using the
public version of {\tt STELLA} and another publicly available code, {\tt SNEC},
utilising the {\tt MESA} models. {\tt SNEC} and {\tt STELLA} provide various
observable properties such as the bolometric luminosity and velocity evolution.
The parameters produced by {\tt SNEC}/{\tt STELLA} and our observations show
close agreement with each other, thus supporting a 12\,$M_\odot$ ZAMS star as
the possible progenitor for SN~2015ap, while the progenitor of SN~2016bau is
slightly less massive, being close to the boundary between SN and non-SN as the
final product.
