MAM
Bira 91 raises new capital to fuel growth
MUMBAI: Bira 91 has just concluded an equity investment in the company led by its existing investors – Sequoia India and Sofina.
The $30m equity will be utilised by the company to grow its business in India. Last year, the company commissioned two new breweries, one each in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka and quadrupled its production capacity. With the launch of Boom in several markets, the company doubled its national market share in FY 2020 to a little less than three per cent of the overall beer market. The company also expanded its presence to more than 400 cities in FY 20, up from 50 in FY 19.
Speaking on the occasion CEO Ankur Jain said, “We continue to grow our business in both existing and new markets. Our market shares in several markets are now higher than 5 per cent of overall beer, and more than 20 per cent share of premium beer. Along with Boom, our other new launches of Bira 91 IPA with Pomelo and the Malabar Stout have been well received. 2020 is a key inflexion point for the company where we expect to reach double-digit market shares in a number of states throughout the year.”
Led by existing investors Sequoia India and Sofina, the new round also saw participation from Sixth Sense – a leading consumer fund, Neoplux – a Korean private equity fund and several high reputation family offices. The new capital will be utilized to expand India business, expand its India footprint and consolidate its leadership position in the premium beer market in India.
AD Agencies
Abhay Duggal joins JioStar as director of Hindi GEC ad sales
The streaming giant brings in a seasoned revenue hand as the battle for Hindi television advertising heats up
MUMBAI: Abhay Duggal has a new desk, and JioStar has a new weapon. The media and entertainment veteran has joined JioStar as director of entertainment ad sales for Hindi general entertainment channels, adding 17 years of hard-won revenue experience to one of India’s most powerful broadcasting operations.
Duggal is no stranger to big portfolios or bruising markets. Before joining JioStar, he spent a brief stint at Republic World as deputy general manager and north regional head for ad sales. Before that, he put in three years at Enterr10 Television, where he ran the north region for Dangal TV and Dangal 2, two of India’s leading free-to-air Hindi channels. The north alone accounted for more than 50 per cent of total channel revenue on his watch, a number that tends to get attention in any sales meeting.
His longest stint was at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, where he spent over six years rising to associate director of sales. There he commanded the Hindi movies cluster across seven channels, owned more than half of north India’s revenue across flagship properties including Zee TV and &TV, and closed marquee sponsorships across the Indian Premier League, Zee Rishtey Awards and Dance India Dance. He also handled monetisation for the English movies and entertainment cluster and the global news channel WION, a portfolio that would stretch most sales teams twice his size.
Earlier in his career Duggal closed what was then a Rs 3 crore single deal at Reliance Broadcast Network, one of the largest in Indian radio at the time, before that he helped launch and monetise JAINHITS, India’s first HITS-based cable and satellite platform.
His edge, by his own account, lies in marrying data and instinct: translating audience trends, inventory signals and client demands into long-term partnerships built on cost-per-rating-point discipline rather than short-term deal chasing. In a media landscape being reshaped by streaming, fragmented attention and AI-driven advertising, that kind of rigour is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
JioStar, which blends the scale of Reliance’s Jio platform with the content firepower of Star, is doubling down on its advertising business at precisely the moment the Hindi GEC market is getting more competitive. Bringing in someone who has spent nearly two decades doing exactly this, across some of India’s most watched channels, is a pointed statement of intent. Duggal has spent his career turning audiences into revenue. JioStar is clearly betting he can do it again, and bigger.
