Venture capital (VC) firm Sequoia Capital has invested in a craft beer brand Bira 91, which aims to capture the growing demand for craft beer in the urban market of India.Venture capital (VC) firm Sequoia Capital has invested in a craft beer brand Bira 91, which aims to capture the growing demand for craft beer in the urban market of India.
This is the first investment made by Sequoia in a local alcoholic beverage brand. The amount invested has not been revealed yet.
Established by Ankur Jain, Bira 91 was launched in Febuary last year.
The brand has top executives of various establishments on board - Snapdeal's Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, Zomato's Deepinder Goyal, and Ashish Dhawan, co-founder of ChrysCapital.
Due to stringent regulations, VC funds have always stayed away from investing in the alcohol beverage space in India. In the recent past, this has been changing. Gaja Capital recently invested in Bangalore-based John Distilleries and Everstone Capital financially supported Sula Vineyards.
The 91 in Bira 91 stands for the country code and the drink is available in major cities - Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Goa, Pune and Chandigarh.
Jain told The Times of India: "We've been able to achieve penetration of 70% in all our markets within a year. We've also clocked a 30% share in the premium segment without a single dollar spent on traditional marketing. Word of mouth and our customers recommending the brand to others is really what has enabled our early success."
Estimated to be valued at $5bn, the Indian beer market has premium players such as Carlsberg, Kingfisher Ultra, Heineken and Budweiser, among others. The premium brands dominate the segment with 8% in terms of volume and 15% by value. The beer market is annually growing at over 20%.
