Jimmy’s Cocktails raises Rs 14 crore in a Pre Series-A round led by Roots Ventures; valuation jumps 2.5x

Jimmy’s Cocktails, a two-year-old Gurgaon-based FMCG/beverage start-up that manufactures and sells low-calorie, non-alcoholic spirits mixers, has raised Rs 14 crore in a bridge round ahead of its Series A, led by Roots Ventures. 7Square Ventures and several start-up founders via an AngelList led by Vishesh Khurana, co-founder Ship Rocket and Varun Alagh, co-founder Mama Earth also invested in this round. Existing investors Keki Mistry, vice chairman and chief executive officer, HDFC; Vidur Talwar, chairman T&T Motors; Anirudh Somani, VP CLSA also participated in the round.

The start-up plans to use the newly raised funds to expand its geographical footprint both in India and International markets, invest in brand awareness and launch new SKUs.

Founded by Ankur Bhatia & Nitin Bhardwaj in 2019, Jimmy’s Cocktails claims to have moved ahead of all other start-ups competing in the same space, having served over six million cocktails in 2022.

Commenting on the fundraise, Ankur Bhatia, founder and chief executive officer, Jimmy’s Cocktails, said, “Our growth is a testimony to our brand’s sharp positioning. The Mixers category in India is slated to touch INR 7000Cr within the decade and we are now well positioned to lead it, given our ability to manage our supply-chain, R&D and manufacturing end-to-end and in-house. We are thankful to have Roots and all other investors be a part of our journey.”

Available in six classic cocktail mixers – Cosmopolitan, Whiskey Sour, Mango Chilli Mojito, Sex On The Beach, Margarita and Bloody Mary, the company recently added India’s only alternate to Tonic Water for mixing with the fast growing Gin category to its portfolio – Gin Cherry Sour, crafted in collaboration with a leading craft gin start-up.

Commenting on the company’s future plans, Nitin Bhardwaj, co-founder and chief operating officer, Jimmy’s Cocktails, said, “Our omnichannel approach has been working for us, and we want to expand it by adding new touchpoints like On-Premise, QSRs, CSD etc. We truly believe the growth potential for a format such as ours lies beyond Metros, in Tier II & III cities, where already we are getting 40% of our revenue. With this funding, we will look to grow our distribution four times to 25000 outlets and triple our revenue run-rate.”

In FY22, the brand witnessed a growth of over 200% in its revenues and is now available at over 6000 FMCG retail outlets, wine shops in over 50 cities, and at leading e-commerce / quick delivery platforms like Swiggy Instamart, Zeptos, and Blinkit. The brand also operates a D2C business delivering from their website jimmyscocktails.com, to over 400 cities in India. Recently the brand has also started exporting to Australia, South Africa, and ISC countries.

Commenting on the investment, Ravinder Vashist, co-founder, Roots Ventures, said, “We were impressed by the relevant industry experience and complementary skill-set Ankur & Nitin bring to this category. They are one of the newer entrants in the Mixers space and have built a strong foundation for future growth over the past two years, amidst difficult market conditions. The founders understand both the alco-bev segment and FMCG distribution channels intimately which has manifested in rapid sales growth. We are also quite excited by the new product pipeline which the company is developing in collaboration with renowned mixologist Yangdup Lama.”

In March 2021, Jimmy’s Cocktails, owned and operated by Radiohead Brands, had raised Rs 6 crore in a seed round from angel investors like Vinay Agarwal, director First State Stewart Asia; Keki Mistry, vice chairman and chief executive officer, HDFC; Anirudh Somani, vice president CLSA; Vidur Talwar, chairman T&T Motors, among others.