Bombay Banta, a Sonipat, Haryana-based beverage startup selling desi-flavoured carbonated drinks, has raised ₹8 crore in a Pre-Series A round led by DSG Consumer Partners — the consumer-focused fund that first backed the brand at the seed stage in 2023. The round also includes Kapil Chopra, founder of EazyDiner and The Postcard Hotel, as a strategic investor, and values the company at ₹80 crore.
The brand was founded in 2021 by husband-wife duo Akkshita Malhotra and Meet Singh Malhotra. Akkshita, with prior experience at Nestlé and PVR, leads brand and consumer strategy. Meet, a gold medallist from The Oberoi Centre of Learning & Development and one of the youngest executive chefs in the Oberoi system, who handles product development and recipe formulation. Early hospitality backers Simrita Arora and Chef Deep Mohan Arneja, who supported the brand through product development, remain part of the cap table.
Bombay Banta built its early distribution by landing a listing as a featured beverage on Vistara Airlines, giving it direct access to urban premium flyers before it moved into restaurants, hotels, and quick commerce. Its current portfolio spans eight SKUs across two lines — a carbonated range including Masala Cola, Kala Khatta, Jeera Soda, Masala Soda, and Lemon Soda, and a non-carbonated, low-sugar range of Shikanji variants. The brand is now live on Blinkit, Zepto, Swiggy Instamart, Flipkart Minutes, and BigBasket, and is stocked across hundreds of hotels and restaurants nationally.
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The fresh capital will fund pan-India distribution expansion, deeper quick commerce penetration, and new product launches. A Diet Vanilla Cola — its first zero-sugar, zero-calorie SKU — is planned for release later in May. The founders are targeting revenue to double over the next six months, with summer demand cited as a near-term driver. The brand recorded nearly 50 percent sales growth during investor discussions.
Akkshita Malhotra, co-founder and CMO, said the raise marks an inflection point for the brand. “This fundraise marks a significant inflection point for Bombay Banta. It reaffirms our conviction to disrupt the Indian beverage market as a brand that uniquely interprets flavour memories that generations have grown up with. Reimagined for today’s modern consumer with better ingredients, a distinctive range, premium branding, and world-class packaging – this capital with the backing of our investors will enable us to accelerate our vision across India and on a global stage over time,” she said.
DSG Consumer Partners’ Hari Premkumar, who led the round, said the fund is doubling down on the brand’s cross-channel momentum.DSG Consumer Partners’ Hari Premkumar, who led the round, said the fund is doubling down on the brand’s cross-channel momentum. “Bombay Banta is building a highly differentiated Indian beverage brand at the intersection of nostalgia, flavour and modern consumer relevance. Meet and Akkshita have demonstrated exceptional product instinct and brand-building capability in a highly competitive market, while creating strong resonance with consumers across channels. We are excited to deepen our partnership with them as they continue scaling Bombay Banta into a large and enduring consumer brand,” he said.
The raise is part of a broader trend of investor appetite for culturally rooted Indian challenger brands in beverages — a category where legacy cola duopolies still dominate shelf space but quick commerce and D2C hospitality channels have opened new distribution lanes for newcomers. DSG Consumer Partners’ continued backing across two rounds suggests Bombay Banta’s early traction across both premium hospitality and mass delivery is being read as a more defensible positioning than a single-channel play.
