Premium Cocktails Brand O' Be Cocktails Raises INR 3.5 Cr Angel Funding

Bengaluru-based RTD cocktail startup, O’ Be Cocktails on Monday announced raising its first round of investment led by First Cheque, Letsventure, Bhavish Aggarwal, and Ankit Bhati from Ola, Abhishek Goyal, founder, Tracxn, and Sprout Investments. 

The investment raised in this round will fund O’ Be Cocktails’ core strategy of growing sales through retailers as well as continuing to increase its production of a new premium cocktail range.

“Everyone loves a cocktail, but not everyone has the know-how or means to make one at the comfort of their homes. The Indian alcohol market is still in the very early stages of growth on per capita consumption and premiumization. With O' Be Cocktails, we have seen tremendous response from consumers and an even greater amount of demand for RTD alcoholic beverages. Our aim is to become the pioneers of the ready-to-drink category growth with the right blend of product, brand, and sales,” said Nitesh Prakash, founder, and chief executive officer, O’ Be Cocktails.

With most of the country under lockdown and restricted movement, RTD beverage sales spiked last year, and with an increase in consumers who prefer to drink their cocktails at home, O’ Be Cocktails identified a gap in the market for premium ready to drink cocktails that could be experienced anytime and anywhere.

Launched by Nitesh Prakash in 2020, O’Be Cocktails is focused on giving the consumers a memorable experience of cocktails that titillate all the senses even at the comfort of their homes. The product is unique as it reimagines cocktails in the context of cultured and tasteful Indian consumers who are now on the constant lookout for experiences that are modern, globally inspired, and absolute.

“The Indian Alcohol market is a huge, fast-growing $35 billion market. We however haven’t seen much product innovation from the incumbents over the past few years despite newer categories like ready-to-drink cocktails gaining lots of ground internationally. We believe the time is ripe for ready-to-drink cocktails to take the Indian market by storm and we love the product and brand that Nitesh and team are building,” added Kushal Bhagia,chief executive officer, FirstCheque.vc.

The brand is currently present in 200 premium stores and has recorded strong growth and consumer reception for cocktails across Bengaluru and Goa.

Every cocktail variant of O’ Be Cocktails has been built with over a hundred iterations, giving consumers the perfect and consistent blend of their favorite cocktail. In FY21-22, the company aims to launch new cocktail variants and reach to 1000+ outlets across other urban markets

The global ready-to-drink cocktails market size is expected to reach $1775.1 million by 2028, registering a CAGR of 12 per cent over the forecast period as per research and market global reports.  According to another report published by Goldstein Market Intelligence, India is the third-largest alcoholic beverage market, after China and Russia, estimated to grow at a CAGR of 7.4 per cent during the forecast period of 2017-2030.