Funding and incubation platform Venture Catalysts has invested $500,000 (Rs 3.2 crore) in energy drinks startup FYRE, which is operated by Mumbai-based Triquetrus Essentials Pvt. Ltd.
Venture Catalysts angels including Apurva Parekh, director of Pidilite Industries; Anupam Mittal, founder of Shaadi.com; as well as Vikash Agarwal and Manish Agarwal, founders, Nandan Group, among others, were the lead investors in the transaction, the seed investment platform said in a statement.
The startup will use the capital to ramp up operations, expand sales and marketing team and enhance its distribution network.
FYRE was founded by Rahul Manek, former partner at Fairwinds Private Equity (formerly Reliance Private Equity). An alumnus of Cornell University, Manek had in the past served as a board member of footwear retailer Khadim’s.
“We are solving a real problem of meeting the energy needs of a nation’s workforce. It (energy drinks) is a huge market worldwide and has several successful models such as 5-hour Energy in the US with a market of nearly $1.2 billion annually, M-150 in Thailand with a market size of $350 million and Lipovitan in Japan with a market size of $1.2 billion,†Manek said.
“Manek and his team have the potential to make FYRE a winning brand. We will work closely with the team to grow the firm,†Apurva Parekh said.
“FYRE has all the requisites to emerge as an extremely profitable business venture,†Vikas Agarwal said.
Venture Catalysts is currently operating in seven cities—Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Lucknow, Raipur and Surat.
The Mumbai-based firm typically invests $100,000-$500,000 in early-stage startups. In July last year, it raised $500,000 (around Rs 3.4 crore then) from Zaffiro Ventures.
In the recent past, it has put money in fintech startup HomeCapital, which provides down payment to first-time home buyers; Mumbai-based video content discovery platform Flickstree and daily consumables startup Supr Daily.
