Rage Coffee Secures Funds; to Strengthen its Omnichannel Distribution

Rage Coffee, a Delhi-based FMCG coffee company that manufactures, markets, and distributes innovative packaged coffee products, has raised an undisclosed amount of growth capital as part of its pre-Series A funding round from a clutch of investors led by Refex Capital.

The round also saw participation from other marquee investors including 9 Unicorns Venture Capital Fund, Emarson Computers, CC One Venture Labs, Spotlight Capital, Evolvx Advisory, Darshan Deora, and KRS Jamwal. The company has also raised revenue-based financing from Getvantage in this round.

The freshly infused capital will be utilized for marketing and distribution purposes as Rage Coffee is planning to expand its online presence and offline footprint. The company will also use the funds to scale up its production and launch innovative new products. Further, on the hiring front, Rage Coffee will be hiring senior leaders in marketing and sales.

Speaking on the development, Bharat Sethi, Founder of Rage Coffee, said, “Our focus on ingredients, formulations, manufacturing techniques, packaging, and direct-to-consumer distribution to bring high-quality coffee products while offering a unique coffee experience to our customers place us in a great spot to build a strong brand. We are therefore planning to double down our efforts across all the channels. We are building a truly omnichannel FMCG brand, with distribution strategies being implemented for the first time given our digital DNA. Over 35 percent of all business generated on our D2C channel is from repeat customers and over 45 percent of all revenue comes from 2nd-time buyers. Besides, global expansion is also on our cart. I am glad to have such distinguished investors join us in this exciting journey.”

The company plans to grow its revenues 3x this year. This follows from a 5-fold increase from last year.

“We wanted to upgrade an average Indian consumer and create products that could compete with high-end specialty café like coffee experience. We see ourselves becoming a caffeine innovation company as a lot of our new product development, we are doing currently, is happening around caffeine, as an active ingredient that we use in our everyday lives in the form of chewables, ground coffee, energy bars, and caffeine snacking items. We want to make great quality coffee simpler and less complicated,” Bharat stated. 

Sridhar Parthasarathy, Managing Partner at Refex Capital, added, “At Refex Capital, we strive to back founders who are obsessed with the problem, show unwavering conviction to solve it, and are relentlessly focused on delighting the customers. We are very impressed with the way Bharat has handled COVID uncertainty, grew the revenue three-fold and built strong internal capabilities in terms of strengthening distribution and marketing and launching innovative product flavors. We are very confident of RageCoffee's growth story and believe that our investment will help further establish its leadership in the market.”