Ankur Jain turned his love for breweries into India’s topmost craft beer brand, booking $100 million+ in annual revenues

Craziest part?

Sequoia had actually turned him down for money, only to return to invest twice.

Quick

1) Ankur Jain moved back to India in 2007 after studying computer science in Chicago, and working on his own health tech startup for 4 years.

His company had fortunately had a modest exit, and Ankur decided to pack bags for good

He took up a job with Reliance.

2) He didn't last 9-5 for more than a year

Being a fan of breweries, Ankur had LOVED the western beer culture and thought a similar vibe should exist in India

Socializing over an easy beer shouldn’t be hard, but the lack of choices here was visibly annoying

3) In 2009, much against his father's wishes, he decided to give the beer market a shot

Ankur launched Cerana Beverages and began importing premium beers from foreign markets unavailable in India at that time

Basically an import + distribution company with no self made product

4) He'd frequent Europe to pick a range of exotic beers, that he believed the Indian consumers would enjoy

he’d then bring his pick back home and sell it to a few pubs around Delhi

At any time, he had a catalogue of about 20-30 beers

5) Ankur pitched a couple of VCs to fuel growth, but he needed a better model than just "distribution" to attract capital, and pick scale

VCs passed.

however, Ankur had some key market validation insights from his journey so far, just that the problem needed reimagination

6) He had observed:

Demand for more types of beer certainly exists
There's a solid market for “rich” taste
Existing players aren't willing to innovate

he now also knew the avg. price point at which the Indian consumer would be happy to indulge in for a unique taste

7) A rough idea was forming in his mind—instead of importing stuff, if he could make a similarly rich beer in India and distinctly market its voice

he could grow faster, build a better product, attack a growing market, and keep a much larger share of profits in the long run

8) The seed for Bira91 was planted

Ankur spent 9 months crafting a fresh brand identity and message. A Belgian-inspired witbier was going to be their first product.

It was time to get some backers onboard. The VC connections from the past would now be helpful.

9) Ankur raised a $1 million seed round from friends & family, followed by another round from Sequoia as well as angels like Deepinder Goyal whom he had met during his prior hustle

a sales partnership with Zomato was also sealed.

10) In 2014, Bira91, a Belgian inspired whit-bier was officially launched in 30 pubs in Delhi.

Ankur was brewing the beer in Belgium, and importing it in India.

For the first year, the company sold a modest 150,000 cases, making ₹50 lakhs in revenues

Not bad, but not great.

11) But word was overwhelmingly positive.

Bira91 team marketed the product heavily at the point of sale, working with bars and pubs to push the word to consumers.

Consumers were excited to try the product out of novelty, and were falling in love with the distinct taste.

12) By 2016, unit sales had been 5x'ed.

Pretty soon demand was becoming to hard to keep up with, leading to shortages in supply, forcing Bira beers off shelves for a while.

That’s when Ankur and team were forced to shift the whole facility to India within months!

13) Sequoia came back with a bigger check and Bira opened its own bottling and brewing facility in Indore, MP in 2016.

Growth spiraled from there.

By 2017, shipments were being sent abroad, with NYC being one of the first global expansion cities.

14) In 2019, Bira made another ballsy move.

they went after the heartland consumer, shattering belief that "craft" beers can only sell in metro cities.

Bira launched a "strong" beer for the mass market. An instant hit, again!

In 6 months, the strong beer sold 1 million cases!

15) By end of the year, Bira was clocking in nearly $100 million in total revenues.

Volumes were nearly doubling each year.

The company launched a range of other products including a Light beer, Pale Ales, and Stouts.

16) Quick look at revenue growth trend:

2016: ₹30 crores
2017: ₹165 crores
2018: ₹450 crores
2019: ₹700 crores

While focusing on growth, Ankur is positive of profitability by 2023, and likely an IPO pretty soon

17) In 2014, India consumed nearly 240 million cases of all types of beer, but craft beer was barely 1% of the market

That number is going to10x in the next 10 years.

Bira today owns about 2-3% of the total beer market, with a long long runway to gain more share.

18) Huge shout to @wtfishika for nailing this thread!

Some awesome articles on the rise of Bira91

The heartland-India revolution:
https://www.forbesindia.com/article/work-in-progress/how-bira-91-went-from-craft-brew-to-the-smalltowns-drink-of-choice/57175/1

On their latest raise:
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/funding/bira-91-raises-30-million-from-kirin-holdings/articleshow/80100950.cms

Good round up key moves: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/344848 

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