NEW DELHI: Beverage company Jimmy’s Cocktails, which sells non-alcoholic spirit mixers, has lifted ₹14 crore in a bridge before its Series A, led by Roots Ventures and 7Square Ventures. Several startup founders, including Vishesh Khurana, co-founder of Ship Rocket, and Varun Alagh, co-founder of Mamaearth, also participated in the fundraiser.
The startup will use the funds to expand its distribution footprint in India and overseas.
In March last year, the beverage brand, owned and operated by Radiohead Brands, raised ₹6 crore in angel investor round Keki Mistry, Vice Chairman and CEO, HDFC Ltd, Vinay Agarwal, Director, First State Stewart Asia, Anirudh Somani, Vice Chairman, CLSA and Vidur Talwar, Chairman T&T Motors among others .
The company is eyeing a larger Series A round of $8 million to $10 million this fiscal year, said Ankur Bhatia, founder and CEO of Jimmy’s Cocktails.
The brand was launched months before the covid-19 induced shutdowns which saw the category benefit from home drinking. Several companies are now competing in the space, offering more premium flavored mixers as an alternative to colas and juices. However, the category remains niche.
“75-80% of spirits consumption takes place at home or outside bars and restaurants,” Bhatia said, adding that this presents an opportunity to help consumers switch to better mixers at home. House.
He believes the blender category in India could grow to touch ₹7,000 crores over the next decade. The company targets the top 10% of alcohol consumers in the country.
The brand is currently available at 6,000 retail outlets and wine shops in more than 50 cities, in addition to online marketplaces and fast delivery platforms such as Swiggy Instamart, Zepto and Blinkit. The brand also operates a direct-to-consumer delivery platform in over 400 cities in India.
Nitin Bhardwaj, co-founder and COO, said the brand is expanding its presence through new touchpoints such as bars and restaurants, quick service restaurants and canteens. Thanks to the recent fundraising, the brand will expand its distribution footprint to 25,000 points of sale and triple its turnover. “We are convinced that the growth potential of a format like ours lies beyond metros, in Tier II and III cities, where we already get 40% of our revenue,” he said. .
The company closed the last financial year with ₹22 crores in revenue, Bhatia said.
More recently, the brand has started exporting to Australia, South Africa and countries in the Indian subcontinent. On the product side, new launches are in preparation. It collaborated with craft gin brand Greater Than to launch a gin-based cocktail mixer.
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