Popular alcoholic beverage brand Bira 91 has raised over Rs 26 crore ($4.3 million) in a pre-series C round, according to the documents accessed by the Mint.
“Unlike many other startups, B9 Beverages has continued to raise from HNIs even while raising from institutional investors such as Sequoia Capital,” said Vivek Durai, founder, paper.vc told Mint.
“Following this round, our estimate of Bira 91’s valuation stands at $246 million with Sequoia Capital as its largest institutional investor,” said Durai.
The startup last raised $50 million in May 2018 from Belgian investor Sofina, which has also backed some of India’s largest startups including Flipkart and Byju’s.
The startup was launched in 2015 by Ankur Jain after he started importing exotic beers from outside India to sell in 2008.
India’s beer market revenue stood at $14,188 million in 2019 that is likely to grow by 7.7 per cent CAGR till 2023 while the average per capita beer consumption in India is 3.6 litres in 2019, as per statistics portal Statista.
As per the documents, the pre-Series C is an unusual nomenclature, indicating that it wants to raise a larger Series C round at a suitable valuation. Its valuation, currently, stands at $246 million with Sequoia as its largest single investor.
Bira 91 other investors include Snapdeal’s Rohit Bansal, Zomato co-founder Deepinder Goyal, TR Capital, Anicut Capital, Sofina, and Smile Group.
It also competes with other beer startups in the verticals including White Owl, Simba, Brewbot, White Rhino, Kati Patang, etc.