Instant food and beverage startup Yu on Friday said it has raised Rs 55 crore in its Series B round of funding led by public market investor Ashish Kacholia and Asian Paints Promoter Group’s Manish Choksi Varun Vakil. The company said it has also provided an exit to some of its seed stage investors, as part of this round, who have realised over 4x return on their investment.
The capital will be deployed to boost the company’s distribution and strengthen its food portfolio along with expanding its beverage range with new fruit juices.
Speaking on the investment, Yu Founders Bharat Bhalla and Varun Kapur said, “From our current annualized revenue run rate of Rs 50 crore, the Series B growth capital should allow us to grow revenues 3x over the next 2 years. This will include enhanced distribution penetration, new product launches and further category expansion.”
Yu had started with instant cup noodles and pastas in 2021 and has since expanded to ready-to-cook noodles, pastas, and natural beverages.
The company said it has developed an omni-channel distribution network with offline presence in over 7,500 stores across India apart from South Africa where its products are sold across over 2,000 retail outlets.
In February this year, Yu had raised Rs 20 crore in a follow-up Series A round following the earlier funding in November 2022.
India’s ready-to-eat meals market is expected to grow by 9 per cent compound annual growth rate between 2024 and 2029. The market size in 2024 is estimated to be $72.21 billion, as per data portal Statista. The market volume is expected to amount to 22.80 billion kg by 2029.