In a bid to fuel its growth in the evolving premium beverage segment in India, Gurgaon-based Radiohead Brands, makers of Jimmy’s Premium Cocktail mixers, raised Rs 6 crores in a bridge round led by Vinay Agarwal – Director, First State Stewart Asia and Keki Mistry, HDFC Ltd, among others.
The round also saw participation by existing investors and the founders, all of whom upped their stake in the company.
Commenting on the fresh funding, Jimmy’s Cocktails Founder Ankur Bhatia said this investment from investors who had participated in our previous round, is testimony to its vision to be a market leader in the emerging premium beverage segment in India.
Direct-To-Consumer sales
“Confidence in our team and our vision, were key reasons they wanted to increase their stake, and while we had a few other offers on the table, with them we didn’t need to look far to step up our growth plans,” said Ankur Bhatia.
Launched September 2019, Jimmy’s Cocktails had completed a seed round of Rs 2.5 crore just before the lockdown was announced. Primarily a retail focussed brand, the company started Direct-To-Consumer sales from their website to overcome Covid-led challenges.
This response to the changing retail environment proved expedient, with Jimmy’s having now home-delivered their cocktail mixers to over 400 cities.
Maintain profitability
For their Pre-Series round, the company took a measured decision to limit the size of the investment, as the founding team believes in maintaining profitability with growth. Proceeds from the new round will go towards the expansion of its retail footprint and enhancing its product portfolio. The company also plans to expand to overseas markets shortly.
Jimmy’s Cocktails Cofounder & COO Nitin Bhardwaj adds in less than a year, Jimmy’s Cocktails has scaled its presence to 1500 retail outlets across 20 cities and seen a 20X growth.
“However, while we continue to invest behind the brand and scale our operations, our resolve to build an inherently profitable business is strong,” said Nitin Bhardwaj.
Indian consumers are fast acquiring a love for cocktails. The trend has been visible at bars and restaurants for a while, in fact over recent years, cocktails as a category has moved up the curve to contribute up to 30% of revenue among premium bars. Nevertheless, unlike most spirits, where on-premise popularity echoes in off-premise or home drinking choices, this trend refused to play catch up.
Favourite cocktail
Jimmy’s Cocktails Cofounder and CMO Mirza Baig elaborate that the discovered the challenges that were holding people back from fixing their favourite cocktails at home.
“This seeded the idea to develop a product, which allows consumers to recreate their gourmet bar style drinks at home, minus the stress and fuss. And now in just a year, we have served more than a Million cocktails across India,” said Mirza Baig.
Another testimony to the brand’s rising popularity is the love it receives on social media from users, with its organic followers surpassing most recent beverage start-ups.
“Our Instagram is bustling with enthusiastic users sharing how they’re enjoying their favourite tipple with our mixers. Jimmy’s is being built for the evening & weekend occasion, and we intend to add several other product categories which are synergistic with both our brand and occasion,” added Ankur Bhatia. 
