Nilgai Foods to raise US $10 million to expand presence

City-based FMCG startup Nilgai Foods is tapping the institutional segment to drive sales and is looking to raise about US $10 million to fuel its expansion across the country, a top company official said.
According to a PTI report: The firm, which sells packaged coconut water under the ‘Cocofly’ brand as well as chutneys and hot sauces under the ‘Pico’ brand, said it has a ready pipeline of products like jams, preserves, snacks, baked products and cookies which would be available for institutional sales.
“Currently, institutional sales is about 10 per cent of the revenues but in 3-4 months our plan is that it should start contributing 60 per cent. Over the last one year we have been very focused on developing ultra-large institutional plants,” its Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Abhay Jaiswal was quoted by PTI as saying.
Cocofly, which started selling on Vistara Airlines, got a good response and the company is in discussion with other airlines and railways for sales.
The fledgling company is aiming for a turnover of Rs 8 crore this fiscal and targeting around Rs 20-30 crore from institutional sales next year, while eyeing a total revenue of Rs 50 crore.
Focused on the Delhi-NCR market at present, the company is looking to raise around US $10 million to fuel its expansion.
“We have enough capacity with 2 million litres a month for Cocofly to do a pan-India launch. However, to do a multi-city pan-India launch, we will require more capital to expand our distribution team and marketing.
“We will need to raise US $8-10 million for it and it will be allocated over 3 years. About 60 per cent of it would go into marketing, while 30 per cent would be utilised for distribution expansion,” he was quoted by PTI as saying.
Jaiswal added if the pan-India launch for Pico and Cocofly materialises, the company would be able to clock a turnover of Rs 300 crore in four years.