NIC Ice Cream Secures $11 Million Funding Led by Jungle Ventures
- ByStartupStory | May 26, 2023
PUNE-BASED WALKO FOOD Co, the proud owner of the popular NIC ice cream brand, recently secured $11 million in a funding round, with Jungle Ventures leading the investment. This funding follows the company’s successful fundraising of $4.8 million from JM Financials in 2021.
Jeetendra Bhandari, Sanjiv Shah, and Raj Bhandari, the co-founders of NIC, have outlined their plans to leverage the recently raised capital to bolster Walko’s production capabilities. This funding will facilitate the expansion of the company’s product offerings and the broadening of its existing distribution network. Additionally, they intend to invest in efficiency management systems, including enterprise resource planning software (ERP), to further enhance operational effectiveness.
As per a report from the Economic Times (ET), NIC, the parent company of Walko Food Co, boasts an extensive presence with 300 cloud stores spread across 100 cities in India. Impressively, the company has achieved a remarkable 90 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the past five years. Furthermore, NIC highlighted that a significant portion of its business is derived from prominent food tech platforms such as Swiggy and Zomato.
During the financial year (FY) 2022, NIC experienced substantial growth in its revenue from operations, with an impressive increase from Rs 55.6 crore in FY21 to Rs 128.6 crore. This marks a remarkable 2.3x surge in operating revenue. Notably, NIC achieved profitability in FY21, and this positive trend continued into FY22, with the company’s profit rising to Rs 27 lakh.
“The big change happened in 2018, and because of the experience of selling through Box8, we thought getting into Swiggy would be a game changer and we were right,” Bhandari told
“New retail channels will give rise to new brands,” said Arpit Beri, principal of India investments, at Jungle Ventures.
“20 to 30 years back, many brands rose through modern trade and they expanded into general trade later. Then came the e-commerce boom through Amazon and Flipkart and many direct-to-consumer brands came into the picture, like Mamaearth, Boat, and Atomberg. Now, we have a third retail channel that has emerged and NIC is among the best brands to have come out of that,” he added.
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