Booozie, “The Facebook and Amazon of the Liquor world “as claimed by its Founder Vivekanand Balijepalli has been in the news for all the right reasons lately. Booozie has taken the liquor delivery eco system by storm with its bold advances in Kolkata, which can be seen on the ground with dozens of delivery partners scampering through the streets of Kolkata in their bright orange jerseys . This seems to have caught the eye of various global and local funds who tap in at early stages to groom such start-ups.
Early stage valuations upwards of 100 cr are usually unheard of, but Booozie has breached it with a 150 Cr seed valuation, which could be attributed to its unique content to commerce to product approach.
Founder & CEO of Booozie, Vivekanand Balijepalli gave his insights on the developments “ The response we received from our consumers for a 10-Minue delivery has been overwhelming to say the least. My vision of creating a holistic platform for Alcohol connoisseur’s and new age growth driver’s has paid rich dividends with investor acceptance at its peak. The need for an exclusive community for this domain has resonated as the biggest USP due to the various issues associated. The 150 Cr valuation doesn’t come as surprise as sky is the limit for a product of this nature which brings a social community to E-commerce and optimises it with our In house brand of Beverages. This coupled with our accomplishment of leaping various barriers and delivering our promise of 10 min deliveries has given us and our investors a lot of confidence to take this to the next level.The global scalability of the Booozie eco-system has also drawn a lot of investor intrigue, with offers of even an outright takeover by some of the E-com/ Social Media Giants. ”
Global Venture funding has hit its all-time low due to a recessionary environment, with late-stage and technology-growth investing being the most severely impacted. However early stage/Seed funding for ventures with concrete roadmaps and infallible growth trajectories have seen a lot of takers.
“With a growing consumer acceptance of alcoholic beverages as just any other grocery, we are seeing a definitive change in the minds of the policy makers i.e the State Governments. An example of this is the Delhi Government which has recently approved the issue of Licenses for Home delivery of Liquor. We anticipate most states to take this up as a non-invasive step to their goal of responsible consumption of alcohol. In order to comprehensively be a one stop solution, we are launching our brand of ancillary products to Liquor such as Packaged Drinking Water, Soda, Mixers etc. on the 75th Independence Day of India. Many of the premium brands such as Diageo and Bacardi have been very supportive of our platform and our vision.” Said Vivekanand.
Booozie has even integrated a system of tracking the real time inventories of stores, in order for consumers to have the right information at the time of placing an order. Like the great Thomas Edison said” The value of an idea lies in the using of it”, Booozie is leaving no stone unturned to raise another “Made in India” Unicorn in the months to come.