Coca-Cola India has acquired a 15 per cent stake in Hashtag Loyalty Pvt Ltd, which operates direct ordering platform Thrive. This is the first such investment in a start-up made by the beverage major in India. Consequently, Jubilant FoodWorks’s stake in Hashtag has reduced from 35 per cent to 29.75 per cent, it said in a BSE filing on Monday.

“Hashtag Loyalty Private Limited... has entered into a securities subscription with Coca-Cola India Pvt Ltd (new investor),” said the filing, adding that the new investor has acquired a 15 per cent stake on a fully diluted basis in Hashtag Loyalty Pvt Ltd. ”Hashtag has raised the capital at a pre-money valuation of ₹104.68 crore,” the filing added.

Thrive Now (Thrive) is a Mumbai-based food tech company that provides an ordering solution for restaurants and enables them to take orders directly from consumers. It charges lower commissions of about 3 per cent than other food aggregators. Currently, over 14,000 restaurants across 80 cities in India use Thrive.

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In a blogpost, Krishi Fagwani, co-founder and CEO of Thrive, said,“We found excellent synergies with Coca-Cola India’s leadership team in our outlook on the market and how we can work towards bringing a change. Our purpose is to make food commerce better for every stakeholder involved, and we’re excited to witness and collaborate with Coca-Cola India to work towards bringing a positive disruption in the food-tech space.”

Greishma Singh, Vice President, Customer & Commercial Leadership, Coca-Cola India & Southwest Asia, said, “Coca-Cola India is delighted to partner with the Thrive Now ecosystem as we see digital capability as an essential multiplier for our India growth strategy. Meals are a critical consumption occasion for our beverages, so the Eat & Drink channel is an ideal place for us to be investing in technology and innovating to digitally enable every outlet to provide a superior consumer experience online and offline.”

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Thrive’s blogpost explained that this collaboration will ensure an improved experience for consumers as they can order beverages of their choice along with their favourite meal from Thrive’s partner restaurants. “This presents a great opportunity for both Thrive and Coca-Cola India Pvt. Ltd. given the online food delivery market’s projected rapid growth and contribution to the total food services industry,” it added.

“Accordingly, the company’s stake in Hashtag has reduced from 35 per cent to 29.75 per cent (on a fully diluted basis)... As part of the transaction, the company has entered into a shareholders agreement dated April 17, 2023, with Hashtag, new investor (Coca-Cola India) and other existing investors of Hashtag,” Jubilant FoodWorks added in its BSE filing.

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