Beverage start-up Indulge Beverages raises fund from industry leaders

In a bid to capture the nascent but high potential premium beverage market, industry stalwarts, Kanwaljit Singh (Ex Co Founder and Senior Managing Director, Helion Venture Partners), Shripad Nadkarni (Director, MarketGate Consulting) and Sarvesh Shahra (Business Head, Foods, Ruchi Soya Industries) have invested an undisclosed amount in upcoming beverage start-up, Indulge Beverages.

“Founded by Kunal Bhagat and Tuhin Jain, Indulge Beverages owns the brand Bonhomia that has launched premium Indian origin tea and coffee capsules brand compatible with Nespresso machines,” said the company’s official release.

The funding arrangement will see the start-up receiving few million dollars over two committed tranches.

Commenting on the investment, Kanwaljit Singh said, “Bonhomia is delivering on a strong emerging consumer trend in India. The consumers are looking for great tasting, convenient and lifestyle brands and Bonhomia satisfies all three. I also see a great potential for the Company to build a global brand, especially with the range of Indian origin tea flavours.”

According to Shripad Nadkarni, “Bonhomia is a brand at the cusp of three major shifts in the Indian consumption landscape: a desire to live life experientially, seeking brands which resonate with ‘my successful trajectory’ and the beverage revolution. Bonhomia is ideally placed to deliver against all three successfully. It has the potential of becoming India’s first truly global beverage brand in a short span of time.”

Speaking about the development, Kunal Bhagat said, “Bonhomia has validated the belief that Indian consumers are looking at evolved food products. Further the brand presents an excellent opportunity to not only tap, but actually grow the market for ‘single serve’ format in India. In about six months of operations, we have had to increase our capacity from 1 million capsules to 20 million capsules.”

“We are currently very well placed in terms of our reach in the B2B as well B2C space. This infusion of capital combined with the industry expertise brought in by the distinguished team of investors will help us expand both our geographic presence as well as product range,” shared Tuhin Jain.

The market for ‘single serve’ Nespresso format coffee is currently estimated to be well north of $10 billion globally. Indulge Beverages holds the first-mover advantage in the Indian market which is estimated at around INR 200 crores. The firm also enjoys the distinction of launching Indian Origin tea capsules compatible with these Single Serve capsule machines providing consumers with more choice.

Established in January 2012, Indulge Beverages launched its premium tea and coffee capsules brand ‘Bonhomia’ in March 2014.

The brand is available through Nature’s Basket, Modern Bazaar and Foodhall gourmet stores across Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad in addition to ecommerce platforms such as bonhomiaworld.com, Snapdeal, Fabmart.com etc.