June 14, 12.56 PM IST || Pocket News Alert
New Delhi, 14th June, 2016: Delhi based, Indulge Beverages which houses the brand Bonhomia has raised $500,000 in a bridge round of funding. The company is currently in talks with potential strategic investors for a strategic investment. The bridge was subscribed to by most of the existing shareholders as well as some new investors, including Valpro Capital (the company behind the capital raising platform Enablers) and an entrepreneur running one of India's largest consumer electronics companies.
Bonhomia is the creator and leader of the premium single serve coffee & tea capsule category in India. The company’s core business offering falls into a very interesting & unique space straddling two domains of technology and food products to offer a one touch in home solution to the Indian consumer for a high end café style coffee. They have raised USD 2 million in two tranches last year from a group of super angels including Kanwaljit Singh, Shripad Nadkarni, Apurva Salarpuria, Ashok Dhingra, Nita Mirchandani, Sarvesh Sahara , Ramrod Advisors, Gidwani family, Tolmolbol and Nitesh Kripalani.
Mr. Anshuman Khanna, Director, ValPro Capital commented “Bonhomia has carved out a niche brand in the single serve beverage segment and is poised at the ideal inflection point to capitalize on the aspirational consumption segment of urban India. Both, Kunal and Tuhin are driving operations and strategy efficiently to capitalize on the strong foundation built by them.”
Kanwaljit Singh, (Founder Fireside Ventures)had this to add “For an investor, industry potential and Management's execution capability are the two most important factors that count when choosing a start-up. Bonhomia is the perfect fit in that sense. The company we believe can be a game-changer in the gourmet coffee industry and we are just backing the winning horse.”
The company promises the joy of an authentic experience with their espresso coffee capsule portfolio that offers a range of signature blends with varying intensities and flavours to suit the palate of Indian consumers. Bonhomia’s distribution presence has expanded to all major cities in the country and their Capsules and Brewing Machines are widely available across all modern trade formats such as Croma, Foodhall, Hypercity & Nature’s Basket. The company plans to leverage their strong distribution and manufacturing capabilities to grow exponentially in the coming months and gain a larger share of the estimated $500 million plus and rapidly growing Indian Retail Coffee Market.
According to Kunal Bhagat, CEOIndulge Beverages, “Bonhomia has redefined coffee consumption in India and our figures show that the trend is here to stay. Large multinationals see the potential in our products and it’s a great to know that with each investment round we are only moving closer to our target. ”
Over the past decade, the appeal for coffee has grown across India, particularly in urban areas. Factors such as globalization, an expanding middle class, rising disposable incomes and changing lifestyle have all contributed to the increase in coffee consumption in the country. Bonhomia is at the forefront of capturing this trend by introducing the single serve coffee capsule concept into the country. The capsule format has already become the dominant consumption format in western nations with brands like Nespresso & Keurig clocking Multi-billion dollar revenues and Bonhomia aims to build a similar empire in India.
“The introduction of our single serve brewers to the retail consumers about 9 months ago has exhibited the huge consumer pull for the category as transactions on our own online platform bonhomiaworld.com have jump-shifted by over 20 times ” added Tuhin Jain ( Co-founder & CMO Indulge Beverages).
The company has shared that the business revenue has grown 10 times over last year particularly led by the increased demand of the product in the retail channel. Bonhomia has already setup over 60 consumer experience zones across the country and plans to expand the same to more than 150 before the year end, given the strong consumer traction.