PremiumNEW DELHI: Alcoholic beverages startup O’ Be Cocktails that sells cocktail has raised Rs3.5 crore in an angel round led by First Cheque, Letsventure, Ola’s Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati, Tracxn founder Abhishek Goyal, and Sprout Investments.
The funds will be used to scale retail presence as well as launch new products, the company said in a statement on Monday.
O’ Be Cocktails was started by Nitesh Prakash in 2020. Its range of drinks is available in Goa and Bengaluru, with plans to sooexpand to other metros.
In the current fiscal, the company plans to reach over 1,000 outlets across other urban markets.
“The Indian alcohol market is still in very early stages of growth on per capita consumption and premiumisation. With O' Be Cocktails, we have seen tremendous response from consumers and an even greater amount of demand for RTD alcoholic beverages. Our aim is to become the pioneers of the ready to drink category growth with the right blend of product, brand and sales," Prakash said.
In FY22, the company aims to launch new cocktail variants and reach to over 1,000 outlets across other urban markets. O’ Be Cocktails sells products such as LIIT and Mojito mixes. It is sold in 200 large format stores.
Alcohol consumption have moved in home in the aftermath of the pandemic prompting companies to experiment with new formats.
The alcoholic beverages market has seen limited product innovation from the incumbents over the past few years despite newer categories like ready-to-drink cocktails gaining ground internationally, Kushal Bhagia, CEO, FirstCheque.vc
Bhagia said the “time is ripe" for ready-to-drink cocktails to be sold in India.
The global ready to drink cocktails market is expected to reach $1775.1 million by 2028. India is also among the top consumers of alcoholic beverages in the world.
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