Bira raises $20 million from Sequoia, Safina

BENGALURU:

B9 Beverages

, which owns the

Bira

brand, has raised $20 million in bridge

financing

from two of its existing investors

Sequoia Capital

and Sofina, a Belgian investor.


This is part of the company’s pre-Series C equity financing round which began last year, as part of which it raised $4.3 million from Sixth Sense Ventures, a domestic venture capital fund focused on consumer investments.

Proceeds from the funding would be used to expand its business in India and gain market share at a time drinks makers have seen their growth hammered as pubs, bars and restaurants remain shut due to Covod-19.

“We continue to grow our business in both existing and new markets. Our market shares in several markets are now higher than 5% of overall beer, and more than 20% share of premium beer,” said Ankur Jain, CEO of B9 Beverages.

Bira has raised $130 million since it started five years back and a major source has been a diverse set of angel investors, including Farhan and Zoya Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani on the one hand to Kalyan Krishnamurthy and a group of General Atlantic executives on the other hand. Korean private equity fund Neoplux also participated in the current round.

Bira recently entered the mass market segment with the launch of Boom which will compete against United Breweries’ Kingfisher Strong. Its other competitors include Carlsberg and AB Inbev.