Two-year-old start up Raw Pressery is planning to raise $20 million from the same set of investors since the time it started making cold pressed fresh juices. Having raised $7.2 million from investors such as Sequoia India, Saama Capital and DSG Capital, its next round is expected to be a bigger one for expanding its beverage portfolio to foods such as vegetable chips and health bars.

“It is likely to be the same set of investors and will help us raise $ 20 million in the next 10-12 months. Investors like Sequoia, Saama Capital and DSG have been growing with us and kept faith in our business model,’’ said Anuj Rakyan, Founder & Managing Director, Raw Pressery.

Having created the raw cold pressed juice category in the country, the Mumbai-based start-up has been steadily raising funds to build its Mumbai-based plant and distribution network while a slew of others like Divine Jus, Rejeuve and Juice Up have also entered the category.

Cold pressed juice is a new and niche beverage category where MNCs in India have so far not treaded. While there are a slew of such brands in the US and the UK with names like Innocent, Naked, Suja and Evolution, some of them have been snapped up by the likes of PepsiCo and Coca Cola to make a foray into this niche category.

“Globally, MNCs do not directly enter the cold pressed juice category. Most of them do through acquisitions or through strategic partners,’’ observes Rakyan.

Meanwhile, Raw Pressery is likely to have an edge over MNC beverages when it comes to stocking its brand among the big coffee chains like Starbucks. “It took a while to get audited by Starbucks since it wanted to have healthy beverages as part of its portfolio. There is also consumer demand for fresh and natural juices and we will soon make our offering available in other coffee chains like Barista and Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf,’’ added Rakyan.                 

Source: Business Line