Craft beer company B9 Beverages has raised Series A funding of $6 million from Sequioa Capital and other marquee investors for its handcrafted beer brand Bira91.
The other investors are Rohit Bansal and Kunal Bahl of Snapdeal, Ashish Dhawan of Chrys Capital and Deepinder Goyal of Zomato.
“This is the first meaningful bet in the alcoholic beverage industry for Sequioa as this lucrative opportunity marks its debut on a global level. Bira91 is a cool ‘Indian’ brand and a great product with a dynamic team managing an innovative supply chain to capture the large ‘on premise’ opportunity,” said Abhay Pandey, Managing Director at Sequoia Capital.
“We are excited about backing the challenger in a large category with nice customer cohorts on basket size, retention and frequency,” Pandey added.
After establishing a stronghold in seven cities (Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Goa, Pune, Chandigarh), the key focus is maintaining a personal connect with the consumer as well as spreading the love and culture for perfect tasting beer.
“In 2016 we will focus on laying the ground-work in terms of process, team and an effective execution strategy that will require an unstoppable hustle so that we are able to expand our geographical footprint in 2017 and capitalise on the large opportunities ahead of us,” said Ankur Jain, CEO, B9 Beverages.