The Bira 91 Story: Building Brands in Emerging Markets
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About Ankur Jain
Ankur Jain is the founder and CEO of B9 Beverages, the maker of Bira 91 craft beers. Born in New Delhi to an architect-urban planner father and an author-interior designer mother, Ankur is a serial entrepreneur who moved to the United States in 1998. He completed his Bachelor’s in Computer Science from Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago. After a brief stint at Motorola, Ankur co-founded a healthcare revenue management firm in New York City which was sold to a large healthcare provider network in 2007. Soon after, he moved back to his hometown and noticed that there weren’t many beers worth drinking in India and decided to solve that problem. Ankur got his start in the beer business in 2009 importing traditional beers from Europe and America to India. Inspired by the American craft beer revolution, he decided that it was time for a craft beer brand “Imagined in India” for the urban, millennial consumer in India and launched Bira 91.
Ankur has been in the Global 100 Young Social Entrepreneur list of Global Knowledge Foundation, Malaysia, and was included in the “Fortune India 40 Under 40” in 2016.
About Bira 91A refreshingly modern beer brand, Bira 91 aspires to bring flavorful beers "Imagined in India" to the new world.
As one of the fastest growing beer brands in the world, Bira 91 has built a strong portfolio of essential beers and aims to drive the global shift in beer towards more colour and flavor.
Established in the summer of 2015 by B9 Beverages and headquartered in New Delhi, Bira 91 has quickly become the rage amongst urban millennials owing to its delicious beers, bold identity and a strong draft network. In 2017, Bira 91 leaped across to New York City to begin its campaign in the United States. And in 2018, the brand started on its wider expansion in the Asia Pacific market by entering Singapore.
In less than three years, Bira 91 is now in the top 25 craft beer brands worldwide by sales volume and the fastest growing beer brand in the world (growing 5x in 2017). Bira 91 is backed by Sequoia Capital and Belgium’s Sofina Capital, and has raised about $200mn till date.
Crafted with the creative urban drinker in mind — someone who likes to have fun and doesn’t take life (or beer) too seriously, the brand aims to disrupt the global beer world with 21st century technology and its playful monkey mascot.