Bira91 raises $1.3 million, as losses mount for the Indian beer brand

• Bira91 has raised $1.3 million in venture debt from Anicut capital.
  
• According to paper.vc, the latest funding is a part of a $5.6 million round that has been ongoing since June.
  
• Meanwhile, Bira91’s losses doubled in FY19 to ₹202.2 crore.
  

Indian beer company Bira91 has raised $1.3 million in venture debt from Anicut capital, according to filings sourced by data intelligence platform paper.vc. According to paper.vc, the latest funding is a part of a $5.6 million round that has been ongoing since June.

Chennai-based Anicut Capital is an early investor of Bira91. Its previous investors include Sequoia Capital, Sixth Sense Ventures, Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy as well as celebrities like Farhan Akhtar, Zoya Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani.

This beer brand which has been around for five years now is popular amongst millennials. Founded by Ankur Jain, it was one of India’s first bottled craft beer startups, which is growing fast across and beyond the country. It already exports to the US and is eyeing other geographies too.

But Bira91, in its expansion mode has also been burning a lot of money. In 2018, Bira91 signed a partnership to be the official sponsor of the ICC cricket world cup which could have cost it around $5-6 million per year, according to reports..

It is also marketing heavily as it launched several new kinds of beer – Indian Pale Ale, Bira Boom among others.

All of this seems to be making a dent in its financials. According to reports, Bira91’s losses doubled in FY19 to ₹202.2 crore, making it the second consecutive year in which the company has seen its losses widen. Its revenue, meanwhile, grew marginally to ₹183 crore in FY19 from ₹158.6 crore in FY19.

“We had tepid growth last year largely on account of delays in commissioning our new brewing capacity and were maxed out in terms of production. Our new breweries that were supposed to go live in FY19 only went live in the second half of FY20. As a result, we were unable to launch new products or expand to new territories,” Jain had told ET.

See Also: Bira91 wants to be more Indian after 4 years of selling craft beer in the country