F&B Brand Yu Raises Rs 55 Cr In Series B Round

Yu, an omnichannel consumer brand that provides a range of instant food and beverage products using Natural Ingredients has secured its Series B funding. The round was led by renowned public market investor Ashish Kacholia and Asian Paints Promoter Group (Manish Choksi, Varun Vakil).

As part of this round, the Company has also provided an exit to some of its seed stage investors who have realised over 4-fold return on their investment. This Series B funding comes at a key inflexion point for Yu as it looks to ramp up distribution and strengthen its food portfolio while also expanding its beverage range with its newly unveiled 100 per cent fruit juices.

Founded by Bharat Bhalla and Varun Kapur, Yu started with instant cup noodles and pasta in 2021 and has since expanded to ready-to-cook noodles, pastas, as well as natural beverages – containing zero concentrates or added sugar.  Some of Yu’s products like its 100 per cent whole wheat noodles and 100 per cent coconut water have already achieved break-out sales on several distribution platforms on the back of volumes higher than those of incumbent brands, claimed the company.

Yu has developed an omni-channel distribution network with offline presence in over 7,500 stores across India. The brand is available pan-India on all quick-com (Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart and Zepto) and ecom channels (Amazon, Flipkart Grocery, Dmart Ready) as well as institutional segments (Akasa Air, SpiceJet). Yu has also developed South Africa as a key market where its products are now sold across 2,000 plus retail outlets, as per the company.

Sharing their excitement, Founders Bharat Bhalla and Varun Kapur jointly expressed, “It is extremely motivating to have raised significant growth capital that too from highly eminent investors. We greatly appreciate their support. Version 2.0 for Yu is now officially underway with the introduction of 100 per cent fruit juices – our second product category after instant foods."