Instant food and beverage startup Yu on Friday said it has raised Rs 55 crore in its Series B funding round led by public market investor Ashish Kacholia and Manish Choksi Varun Vakil of Asian Paints Promoter Group. The company said it also offered an exit to some of its seed-stage investors, as part of this round, who made more than 4x ROI.

The capital will be deployed to boost the company’s distribution and strengthen its food portfolio while expanding its beverage range with new fruit juices.

Speaking about the investment, Yu founders Bharat Bhalla and Varun Kapur said, “From our current annualized revenue run rate of Rs 50 crore, the Series B growth capital is expected to enable us to multiply our income by 3 over the next 2 years. This will include greater distribution penetration, new product launches and further category expansion.

Yu started with instant noodles and pasta in 2021 and has since expanded to ready-to-cook natural noodles, pasta and drinks.

The company said it has developed an omni-channel distribution network with offline presence in over 7,500 stores across India, excluding South Africa where its products are sold in over 2,000 retail outlets. sale.

In February this year, Yu had raised Rs 20 crore in a follow-up Series A funding round after the previous funding in November 2022.

The Indian ready-to-eat meals market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 9% between 2024 and 2029. The market size in 2024 is estimated at $72.21 billion, according to data portal Statista. The market volume is expected to reach 22.80 billion kg by 2029.