Bira 91 is one of India’s most popular craft beer brands since its inception in 2015. The beer is manufactured by B9 Beverages Private Limited and company has recently announced to raise $30 million in its latest funding round.
Bira 91’s latest $30M funding:
The funding round was led by company’s investors- Sofina, Belgium-based investment company and Sequoia Capital (India).
Apart from this, other existing investors such as Sixth Sense Ventures– Mumbai-based Venture Capital firm, Neoplux– a private equity firm from Korea and others also participated in the beer brand’s fundraiser.
According to sources, the company plans to use this latest infusion of funds to strengthen its position by expansion in the Indian market and consolidate leadership in the premium beer segment of the industry.
Bira91 founder:
B9 Beverages Pvt Ltd. was founded back in 2015 by Ankur Jain, a computer science graduate with first venture being in the field of Healthcare Revenue Management in New York. Later, the business was sold to an undisclosed buyer and Jain moved back to India and started his own Craft Beer Venture- Bira 91.
Bira91 funding history:
According to a report, in the initial stages of the business, Ankur Jain casually raised $1.5 million from friends and family to invest in B9 Beverages.
The company’s first official funding round concluded in 2016 with funds worth $6 million. The Series A round was led by Sequoia Capital India and it is noteworthy that it was Sequoia’s first investment in the Alcohol industry.
The round also witnessed participation from Angel investors Mayank Singhal, Ashish Dhawan, Rohit Bansal and Kunal Bahl- founders of Snapdeal and founder of Zomato- Deepinder Goyal.
In 2018, Sofina– Belgium-based holding investor funded $50 million in B9 Beverages and Bira 91.
Then in the company’s Pre-Series C funding round, Sixth Sense Ventures infused $3.4 million in May 2019.
Bira 91- Current Trends:
Bira 91- CEO and founder Ankur Jain commented on the latest fundraiser saying, “We continue to grow our business in both existing and new markets. Our market shares in several markets are now higher than 5% of overall beer and more than 20% share of premium beer market,” according to livemint.com.
CEO Jain claims to have acquired over 5% of overall beer market share, as in 2019, two new breweries were commissioned in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka which literally increased the company’s production capacity by 4x.
B9 Beverages also introduced “Boom” as its latest beer brand appeal to the masses which alone acquire 3 % of the market share with the company’s presence in over 400 cities across India.
