Ice-cream brand NIC raises $20 million from Jungle Ventures at $150 million valuation

The fresh funds will be used to expand the company’s distribution channels, especially the modern trade and general trade divisions

Walko Food, which operates the ice cream brand NIC, has raised $20 million from Singapore-based Jungle Ventures, the second round of fund infusion in less than 12 months.

While NIC did not comment on valuation, Moneycontrol learnt that the latest round valued the Pune-based company ice-cream company at Rs 1,300 crore, or around $150 million.

“Anybody eating a Domino’s pizza is also eating NIC’s ice cream right now. We want to be targeting the entire middle class, upper middle class with NIC. Even from the premium segment, the brand has received great customer love. The idea is to build a full stack ice cream company,” Arpit Beri, Partner, India Investments at Jungle Ventures, told Moneycontrol.

The funds will be used to expand the company’s distribution channels, especially the modern trade and general trade divisions, which will help the brand reach more customers, the company said on February 21.

The funding comes at a time when the ice-cream market in India is set to grow from around $3.4 billion to about $5 billion by FY25, a recent report by Wazir Advisors said.

After its previous fundraise in May 2023, in which it raised $11 million from Jungle Ventures, NIC launched Yummo to cater to the Indian mass retail market to help it compete with traditional players like Amul, Vadilal and Cream Bell.

Co-founded in 2012 by Jeetendra Bhandari, Sanjiv Shah, and Raj Bhandari -- former employees at large companies like Walmart and Coca Cola -- NIC said it has achieved a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 90 percent in the last five years by expanding to over 100 cities across the country.

Prior to this round, NIC had raised over $35 million from several other investors.

Smaller companies have also been raising venture capital to grow their business. Go Zero also raised $1 million in its pre-Series A round which was led by DSG Consumer Partners, Saama, V3 Ventures and others.