Jimmy’s Cocktails raises ₹14 crore in pre-series A round

NEW DELHI: Beverage company Jimmy’s Cocktails, which sells non-alcoholic spirits mixers, has raised ₹14 crore in a bridge round ahead of its Series A, led by Roots Ventures and 7Square Ventures. Several startup founders, including Vishesh Khurana, co-founder Ship Rocket, and Varun Alagh, co-founder Mamaearth, also participated in the fund raise.

The startup will use 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 a seed round from angel investors Keki Mistry, vice chairman and CEO, HDFC Ltd, Vinay Agarwal, director, First State Stewart Asia, Anirudh Somani, vice president, CLSA and Vidur Talwar, chairman T&T Motors, among others.

The company is looking at a larger $8 million to $10 million Series A round this financial year, said Ankur Bhatia, founder and CEO, Jimmy’s Cocktails.

The brand was launched months ahead of the covid-19 induced lockdowns that saw the category benefit as consumption of liquor moved in-home. Several companies now compete in the space, offering more premium, flavoured mixers as an alternative to colas and fruit juices. The category, however, remains niche.

“75-80% of the spirits consumption happens at home or outside bars and restaurants,” said Bhatia, adding that this presents an opportunity to help consumers trade up to better mixers at home.

He estimates the mixers category in India could grow to touch ₹7,000 crore over the next decade. The company is targeting the top 10% liquor consumers in the country.

The brand is currently available in 6,000 retail outlets and wine shops in over 50 cities, apart from online marketplaces and quick delivery platforms such as Swiggy Instamart, Zepto, and Blinkit. The brand also operates a direct-to-consumer platform shipping to over 400 cities in India.

Nitin Bhardwaj, co-founder and COO, said the brand is in the process of expanding presence across new touch-points such as bars and restaurants, quick service restaurants, and canteen stores. With the recent fund-raise, the brand will grow its distribution footprint to 25,000 outlets and triple revenue run-rate. “We truly believe the growth potential for a format such as ours lies beyond metros, in Tier II and III cities, where already we are getting 40% of our revenue,” he said.

The company closed the last financial year with ₹22 crore in revenue, said Bhatia.

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 the pipeline. It collaborated with craft gin brand Greater Than to launch an a gin-based cocktail mixer.