Beverage start-up Jimmy’s Cocktails has raised ₹14 crore in bridge round ahead of its Series A led by Root Ventures. 7Square Ventures and several start-up founders via an AngelList led by Vishesh Khurana, Co-founder Ship Rocket and Varun Alagh. Co-founder Mamaearth also invested in this round.
Existing investors Keki Mistry, Vice-chairman and CEO, HDFC Ltd, Vidur Talwar, Chairman T&T Motors, Anirudh Somani, VP CLSA also participated in the round.
The start-up which offers low calorie non-alcoholic cocktail mixers, plans to use the funds to expand its geographical footprint, both in India and international markets, invest in brand awareness and launch new SKUs.
200 per cent growth
Founded by Ankur Bhatia and Nitin Bhardwaj in 2019, Jimmy’s Cocktails claims to have witnessed 200 per cent growth in FY 22. It is available across 6,000 outlets besides leading e-commerce and quick delivery platforms besides its own website. Recently, the brand is being exported to countries such as Australia and South Africa besides neighbouring countries.
Ankur Bhatia, Founder and CEO, Jimmy’s Cocktails, said, “Our growth is a testimony to our brand’s sharp positioning. The mixers category in India is slated to touch ₹7,000 crore within the decade and we are now well positioned to lead it, given our ability to manage our supply-chain, R&D and manufacturing end-to-end and in-house.”
The start-up said that it is already getting nearly 40 per cent revenues from tier 2 and tier-3 cities and expects to triple its revenue run rate and growth its distribution to 25,000 outlets.
Ravinder Vashist, Co-Founder, Roots Ventures, said, “The founders understand both the alco-bev segment and FMCG distribution channels intimately which has manifested in rapid sales growth. We are also quite excited by the new product pipeline which the company is developing in collaboration with renowned mixologist Yangdup Lama.”
In March 2021, Jimmy’s Cocktails, owned and operated by Radiohead Brands Pvt Ltd, had raised ₹6 crore in a seed round from angel investors.