Indian cocktail brand Jimmy's Cocktails on Friday said it has raised $350,000 (Rs 2.64 crore) in seed funding led by Ekcle Ventures.
Vidur Talwar, managing director at Mercedes-Benz T&T Motors, and Angad Bhatia, operations chief of Indiatimes Lifestyle Network, also participated in this funding round, said Jimmy's Cocktails in a statement.
Jimmy's Cocktails, which is operated by Radiohead Brands Pvt. Ltd, will use the funds to expand its product offering and boost its distribution footprint.
The startup was founded last year by Ankur Bhatia, Mirza Baig (chief marketing officer) and Nitin Bhardwaj (operations chief).
Bhatia, who earlier co-founded men's lifestyle magazine MensXP, had previously worked with spirits brands like Teacher’s Scotch Whisky and Jim Beam.
Bhardwaj was with energy drink maker Red Bull. Baig has had entrepreneurship stints.
Jimmy's Cocktails is a premium cocktail mixer which doubles up as a low-calorie non-alcoholic ready-to-drink mocktail, it said. Its product was already available at 200 retail touchpoints prior to the lockdown imposed by the government to contain the spread of coronavirus.
The startup is now pushing for direct-to-consumer sales through its website because of the lockdown, it added.
The investment was managed by Ekcle Advisory Services.
Eckle Ventures invests in early and growth-stage startups and Ekcle Advisory Services advises startups on fundraising and investor relations, among others.
Startups engaged in selling premium spirits and non-alcoholic drinks have been attracting funding from investors.
In April, VCCirlce reported a top executive at Norwest Venture Partners and others have bet on a gin producer.
In November last year, non-alcoholic beverage maker Svami Drinks raised Rs 7.5 crore in its pre-Series A round of funding from a mix of institutional and individual investors.
In the same month, Coolberg Beverages, which makes non-alcoholic beer, raised its Series A round of funding.
In May 2019, B9 Beverages Pvt. Ltd, which makes craft beer under the brand Bira 91, raised a bridge round of funding from a new institutional investor Sixth Sense Ventures.
