Rakyan Beverages Pvt Ltd, which sells fresh cold-pressed juices under the RAW Pressery brand, has raised Rs 30.8 crore ($4.5 million) in a Series B round of funding from Saama Capital, DSG Consumer Partners and existing investor Sequoia Capital.
The Mumbai-based startup said it will use the money to introduce new flavours, increase production capacity and launch brand-building campaigns.
“With this fund-raise we aim to make our fresh beverages more accessible, available and affordable. We will add eight more juices and smoothies ranging from Rs 50 to Rs 150 to cater to our young conscious audience,” founder Anuj Rakyan said.
RAW Pressery is available in seven cities – Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Pune, Gurgaon, Hyderabad and Chennai – at about 300 points of sale. It is planning to expand its presence to 12 cities and 1,500-1,800 points of sale in 2016-17.
The company sells its products at modern retail outlets such as Nature’s Basket, Food Hall or HyperCITY. It also runs a subscription model to deliver juice bottles of 250 ml and 410 ml at the doorsteps of registered users. It claims to have an active customer base of 25,000 and is producing 8,000 bottles a day.
“Globally, the category of cold-pressed juices and all-natural beverages is growing very fast and has huge potential. After much diligence, we found RAW to have the best product in India by far,” said Ash Lilani, managing partner and co-founder of Saama Capital.
RAW Pressery competes with the likes of Mumbai-based startups such as Juicifix and JusDivine, and Delhi-based Antidote and Juice Up.
The company, which was launched in 2014, had secured funding of $1.8 million from Sequoia Capital last year.
