Sequoia, Snapdeal & Zomato Co-Founders Invest $6 Million In B9 Beverages

B9 Beverages, an Indian craft beer company, has announced that it has raised a Series A funding of $6 million lead by Sequoia Capital and other investors including Snapdeal co-founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, Chrys Capital’s Ashish Dhawan and Zomato co-founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal for its handcrafted beer brand, Bira91.

According to the company, Bira91 has been able to achieve a penetration of 70% in all its markets within a year of being launched, gaining a market share of 30% in the premium segment.

For Sequoia, this is its first meaningful bet it has made in the alcoholic beverage industry. Speaking about the same, Sequoia’s MD, Abhay Pandey, said, “Bira91 is a cool ‘Indian’ brand and a great product with a dynamic team managing an innovative supply chain to capture the large ‘on premise’ opportunity. We are excited about backing the challenger in a large category with nice customer cohorts on basket size, retention and frequency.”

B9 beverages says that with strongholds in seven major cities already established, the key focus for the team is creating consumer connect and increasing the base.

“In the year 2016, we will focus on laying the groundwork in terms of process, team and an effective execution strategy that will require an unstoppable hustle so that we are able to expand our geographical footprint in 2017 and capitalize on the large opportunities ahead of us,” said Ankur Jain, CEO, B9 Beverages.

“Perhaps the most important factor in our early success has been the strong word-of-mouth that Bira91 has received. Consumers love Bira91, recommend us to people they know, leading to a potentially exponential network effect bordering on a contagion. This kind of strong word-of-mouth has been elusive for almost everyone and this puts Bira91 in a unique position full of limitless opportunity and serious responsibility in the coming years,” said he added.