Sequoia leads $6m round for Indian brewer

According to an estrade report that was linked from Bira 91's Twitter feed, the company will use the funds to expand into new territories in India, where it is currently available in seven cities. It will also construct a new production facility, with the goal of expanding its sales from 240,000 cases per year to one million per year.

Bira 91 is Sequoia's second portfolio company in India's beverage sector; it has also invested in soft drink maker Hector Beverages, leading a $5 million round in 2013 and participating in a $29 million round last year. A number of angel investors, including Snapdeal co-founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal and ChrysCapital co-founder Ashish Dhawan, also participated in this round.

B9 Beverages' founder, Ankur Jain, previously ran a healthcare start-up in New York before returning to India in 2007. The first incarnation of the company, named Cerana Beverages, was solely an importer of foreign brands. In 2014, Jain hired a brewmaster from Belgium to create Bira 91, which launched last February.

India's beer market has been estimated at $5 billion, with premium beers - which sell for more than INR100 per liter and include Heineken, Carlsberg and Budweiser - representing about 15% of revenue. Bira 91 is targeting this space, whose growth has been reported at more than 20% per year.

The brewing industry in India has seen little attention from the VC industry. AVCJ Research shows only two such investments in the last 10 years - Brahma Capital invested $5.4 million in Cobra India Beer to help with its takeover of Iceberg Industries, committing $600,000 for a 12% stake in Iceberg at the same time.

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Consumer
• Expansion
• Venture
• India
• Consumer
• Sequoia Capital
• Growth capital
• Venture