April 15 2016, 12.22 PM IST || Pocket News Alert
New York City marks the first metropolitan area for the brew’s U.S. distribution
BANGALORE, April 2016—Bira 91, India’s original craft beer, arrives in New York City as the exclusive beer sponsor of the city’s iconic Tribeca Film Festival, running April 13-24, 2016. The New York City debut is the first step in a full U.S. rollout for the company, which successfully launched in Delhi in early 2015 and quickly gained fans throughout India.
Founder and CEO Ankur Jain, a serial entrepreneur, was inspired to introduce his product to New York after falling in love with the city’s passion for beer during his post-graduate years as co-founder of a NYC-based healthcare revenue management firm. As a die-hard film fan, Jain has attended the Tribeca Film Festival himself since its inception in 2002.
“Bira 91 was imagined in India with inspiration from American beer culture. It’s unorthodox, urban, fun and modern,” Jain said. “The film world parallels a lot of these values, and so I knew Tribeca Film Festival was the perfect platform to bring Bira 91 to my favorite city, New York.”
The brand’s two styles—Bira 91 White and Bira 91 Blonde—are available at official Tribeca Film Festival events as well as at bars, restaurants and beer retailers throughout the city beginning in May.
"As a group of creatives, Tribeca Film Festival is always looking for cool, progressive brands to be involved in our events,” said Andrew Essex, CEO of Tribeca Enterprises. "When I met Ankur and he introduced me to Bira 91, we knew it was the right fit for our beer sponsor. Like our festival, Bira 91 is groundbreaking, modern, creative and above all, fun.”
Referencing India’s country code, Bira 91 found fast success in India through unconventional social marketing, whimsical branding and underground campaigns. The company now has a 30 percent share in the on-premise premium beer segment in its active markets and has doubled in revenue each quarter so far. The brand’s growth earned Jain an inclusion in Fortune India’s ’40 Under 40’ list in February 2016. The brand was able to bring its product to the U.S. with the backing of Silicon Valley venture firm Sequoia Capital, the fund’s first investment in a beer company globally.
Bira 91 White is a wheat beer with low bitterness and Bira 91 Blonde is a hoppy craft lager. Made with all natural ingredients from farms in India and Europe and brewed with a secret recipe, the products are available in bottles, cans and kegs.
About Bira 91
A craft beer “Imagined in India,” Bira 91 was founded by CEO Ankur Jain and stands to represent modern India. Established in 2015 by B9 Beverages and headquartered in New Delhi, the beer is available in two styles—Bira 91 White and Bira 91 Blonde—in draft, canned and bottled formats.
Available in India and New York (May 2016), Bira 91 is crafted with the creative urban drinker in mind—someone who likes to have fun and doesn’t take life (or beer) too seriously. The company aims to disrupt the Indian and American beer markets with its guerilla marketing tactics and monkey mascot, always embracing the unorthodox. For more information visit www.Bira 91.com
About B9 Beverages
Founded by Ankur Jain, a computer scientist by training and a serial entrepreneur, the firm is led by a young, energetic and aggressive team of outsiders. The leadership team comprises of Anuj Krishan (COO), a graduate of IIT, Bombay and an ex-banker at UBS London, Tanmoy Mukherjee (CMO), with marketing leadership experience at Coca Cola, ITC and Lavazza Coffee, Vikram Qanungo (CFO), with Finance leadership positions at Apeejay Surrendra Group and Reliance Retail and Anshul Agarwal (CDO) an MBA from Symbiosis Pune. Jaideep Wanchoo, ex-Head of Quality & Brewing at Carlsberg India, leads the production team, Dev Kabir Malik (Creative Director) leads visual identity and creative content and Arvind Sharma, ex-Pizza Hut & Costa Coffee, leads the supply chain function for the firm. B9’s City teams are led by Nayanabhiram Deekonda (City CEO Mumbai), ex-Reckitt Benckiser and an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, Dheeraj Chaula (City CEO Bangalore), ex-Samsung and an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, Vijaydeep Nadakarni (City CEO Pune), ex-Satyam Infotech and an MBA from IIM Bangalore and Davedutt Gaddi (City CEO Delhi), ex-Head of Sales, Lavazza Coffee India – North & East. The overall team has grown from 30 people in the beginning of 2015 to 300+ (March 2016).
The firm is backed by a set of marquee investors led by Sequoia Capital. Other investors in the firm include Ashish Dhawan (Founder of Chrysalis Capital and one of the most prolific and successful private equity firms in India), Deepinder Goyal (Founder, Zomato – India’s leading restaurant search company), Kunal Bahl & Rohit Bansal (Founders, Snapdeal – India’s leading e-commerce company), Sandeep Naik (Managing Director, General Atlantic – India and South East Asia) and Ashvin Chadha (a leading angel investor).