Craft Beer brand Bira 91 raises Rs 25 Cr from Anicut Capital

New Delhi-based craft beer brand B9 Beverages, the maker of Bira 91 beer, has raised Rs 25 crore by issuing debentures to Anicut Capital.

According to the filing with the Registrar of Companies, Bira has issued 250 non-convertible debentures worth `10 lakh each to Grand Anicut Fund 1 last month, reported ET.

Formally launched in February 2015 by Ankur Jain, Bira started producing locally in 2016 when it opened its Indore facility. The beer brand currently has two units in Indore and Nagpur with a bottling capacity of about 4.2 million cases a year.

Bira initially imported the beverage from Belgium but later started brewing in India because of cost advantages. And now it looks to expand its geographic footprint to cash in on the rising popularity of craft beer.

In August, B9 Beverages raised around $8 million from venture capital fund Sequoia Capital. With the latest round of funding from Anicut, the beer firm has so far raised around $35 million.

During its initial rounds of fundraising, the company had also received investments from Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, co-founders of Snapdeal, Zomato's founder Deepinder Goyal, including several other investors.

Apart from Bira, there are more than 80 microbreweries operating in India, including White Rhino, Irish Village, Effingut Brewerkz, TJ’s Brew Works, Mumbai-based Gateway Brewing Co., The Barking Deer, The White Owl and Brewbot.

Chennai-based Anicut Capital is a principal investment firm specializing in investments in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Over the past year, Anicut Capital has invested in nearly half a dozen companies, including Lendingkart.

Bira 91: Website