- Their first brand Jimmy’s is now the market leader in the non-carbonated Mixers category
- Radiohead Brands extends its Pre-Series round to $3M with an additional $1.3M raise led by Prath Ventures, participated by Vijay Shekhar Sharma and other prominent angel investors
- Expands its portfolio of brands, enters into the fast growing Energy Drinks Segment with new Hustle Energy Drink and expects to reach a Rs 100cr revenue run-rate with this financial year
18 July 2023, Gurgaon: Four-year-old Gurgaon based startup, Radiohead Brands, makers of the category leading brand Jimmy’s®, market leaders in the mixers space, announced its transformation into a multi-beverage brands company, broadening its offerings beyond Jimmy’s® Cocktails and Sparkling Mixers. As part of this expansion, the company introduces ‘Hustle’ Energy drink, conceived with a view to disrupt the Energy Drinks category.
This strategic portfolio expansion reflects brand’s vision to be the build the premium beverage category in India and its commitment to deliver exceptional taste and unrivaled drinking experiences to a broader audience.
To fund this expansion Radiohead also announced its recent fundraise, an extension of its earlier Pre-Series A round. The company’s valuation grew 3x over last year and 20x over last three years since it started its operations. The round was led by Prath Ventures which also saw participation from prominent angels like Vijay Shekhar Sharma of (PayTM) and Neel Bahl. Existing investors Keki Mistry (HDFC), Vishesh Khurana (Shiprocket), 7Square Ventures, Vidur Talwar (T&T Motors) and Anirudh Somani (CLSA). The company had raised ₹14 crore last year March in an investment round led by Roots Ventures.
Founded by Ankur Bhatia & Nitin Bhardwaj in 2019, its first brand Jimmy’s® claims to have moved ahead of all other start-ups competing in the same space, having served over 12 million drinks in FY’23. It now plans to use its deep category experience, already established route to market and unique ability to build brands fast and frugal to dominate the premium energy drinks segment.
Speaking about the fundraise, Ankur Bhatia, Founder and CEO Radiohead Brands, said, “Almost all categories in India have seen consumers’ willingness to upgrade to better quality products and pay a premium for it, be it in technology, real estate, fashion, automobiles or spirits. Packaged beverage as a category, however, is stuck at lower end of the price segment which is unique to the Indian sub-continent. 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.”
The company plans to enter several new categories in open white spaces still untapped by the beverage majors over the next few years and has an ambition to reach ₹100 crore revenue run-rate within this year with an ambition to build a ₹1000 crore revenue company within the decade. In FY23, Radiohead Brands revenues grew over 75% and the brand Jimmy’s is now available at over 20,000 retail outlets, wine shops and prominent bars in over 50 cities, as well as all leading ecommerce platforms. The brand also operates a D2C business delivering from their website DrinkJimmys.com, to over 400 cities in India.
Speaking about its future plans, Nitin Bhardwaj, Co-founder and COO Radiohead Brands, said, “We have a ready platform to launch Hustle with route to market already built on the back of Jimmy’s. We see immense potential in the Energy Drinks segment, with our sharp brand positioning and teams with deep category experience, we are confident we will fast be a dominant player in this category as well.”
The Company started online testing and sales of Hustle almost two years earlier, AB testing with consumers and perfecting its recipe and packaging design. The final Hustle Energy Drink product is made in Dubai, comes in a single classic flavour in a 250ml premium CAN. Priced at ₹60. Currently available in over 10 cities and delivering nationally through it D2C website HustleEnergyDrink.com
As per Piyush Goenka, founder of Prath Ventures – “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. The company’s products have huge customer love and are well accepted by the trade. We believe the company is set to emerge as a leading premium beverage player in a few years with a diversified portfolio of brands and products.”
Price of Hustle™ Energy Drink – ₹60 for a 250ML Can.
Available at – HustleEnergyDrink.com & select major retail outlets
Price of Jimmy’s® Cocktails – ₹99 for a 250ML glass bottle.
Price of Jimmy’s® Tonic Water, Classic Lemonade& Ginger Ale – ₹60 for a 250ML Can
Available at – DrinkJimmys.com and all major retail outlets in the country
About Radiohead Brands
Radiohead Brands is a currently the market leader in the cocktail mixers category and has the widest portfolio of mixers – Cosmopolitan, Whiskey Sour, Mango Chilli Mojito, Sex on The Beach, Margarita, Bloody Mary, The New Old Fashioned and an Espresso Martini. The company also recently introduced its sparkling mixers range in Cans with variants Classic Lemonade, Tonic Water & Ginger Ale. Built on an omnichannel (D2C+Retail) strategy, the company started online testing and sales of Hustle, AB testing with consumers and perfecting its recipe and packaging design almost two years earlier. The final Hustle Energy Drink product is made in Dubai and comes in a single classic flavour in a 250ml Can.
About Prath Ventures
Prath Ventures is an early-stage fund that invests in Consumer-facing businesses (B2C) and their enablers. The fund is focused on seed to Series A and aims to deliver the best of ‘Indian consumption opportunity’ to its LPs. The Radiohead investment marks the debut deal for the fund that typically comes in with a ‘first cheque’ of USD 500K-2 M with participation in subsequent rounds. The fund is led by Harmanpreet Singh & Piyush Goenka who have cumulative 30 years of investing experience. Harman was until recently a Managing Director with Multiples PE and Piyush was a Partner with Tano Capital. Both of them have been successful investors in their personal and professional capacities.
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