Jimmy Cocktails’ Parent Bags Funding To Fuel Foray Into Energy Drinks Space

D2C food and beverages (F&B) startup Radiohead Brands, the parent of Jimmy’s Cocktails, on Tuesday (July 18) said it has raised an additional funding of $1.3 Mn (INR 11 Cr) as part of its extended pre-Series A round.

The latest fundraise was led by Parth Ventures. It also saw participation from angel investors, including Paytm’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Neel Bahl, and existing investors such as Keki Mistry, Vishesh Khurana, 7Square Ventures, Vidur Talwar and Anirudh Somani.

The D2C startup, which currently operates in the cocktail and sparkling mixers category, will use the fresh funding to expand its portfolio and build a strong presence in the energy drinks space.

The startup announced its foray into the energy drinks segment with the launch of Hustle.

“… Packaged beverages, as a category, is stuck at (the) lower end of the price segment which is unique to the Indian subcontinent. We are disrupting this and building a multi beverage brands company at the premium end with better quality products built on the back of sharp positioning and clutter breaking packaging,” Radiohead Brands cofounder and CEO Ankur Bhatia said.

Commenting on the fundraise, Prath ventures founder Piyush Goenka said, “Radiohead Brands is our play on the high-growth premium beverages segment in India. Ankur and Nitin are the best team to build in this market with a strong understanding of brand building and distribution…”

Founded in 2019 by Bhatia and Nitin Bhardwaj in 2019, the startup last raised a funding of $1.8 Mn as part of its pre-Series A funding round led by Roots Ventures in April 2022.

As per the company, Radiohead Brands’ valuation has surged by 3X over the past one year and 20X since its inception in 2019.

Flush with funding, the D2C brand also plans to enter several new categories in the next few years. Radiohead Brands is eyeing an annual run rate (ARR) of INR 100 Cr by 2024.

The company claims to have grown its revenues 75% year-on-year (YoY) in the fiscal year 2022-23 (FY23). Its products under the Jimmy Cocktails brand are available at more than 20,000 outlets across 50 cities. It also sells its products on ecommerce marketplaces and its own website.

Jimmy’s Cocktails competes with the likes of big players such as PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Hector Beverages and Red Bull. It operates within the larger non-alcoholic drinks market, which has seen sales skyrocket in the past few years on the back of increased discretionary spending and the rise of D2C brands.

As per a report, the homegrown non-alcoholic drinks market is projected to grow to a market size of INR 60,180 Cr by FY27.