Ice cream maker NIC raises $11 million in funding led by Jungle Ventures

The fresh funds will be used to expand Walko’s production, enhance its product offerings, and broaden its distribution reach. The company also plans to invest in efficiency management systems, including enterprise resource planning (ERP) software to strengthen its business operations and support growth.

Jeetendra Bhandari, cofounder of NIC, said that 70% of the company’s business comes from foodtech apps such as Swiggy and Zomato. Bhandari said that the company, which was founded in 2012, started seeing significant growth in 2018 after signing up with Swiggy. It started selling ice cream through the food delivery platforms by setting up cloud stores.

Currently, NIC has more than 300 cloud stores across 100 cities in India. Bhandari claims that the company has become the most popular ice cream brand on food tech platforms. It claims to have grown at a compound annual growth rate of 90% over the last five years.

Even before selling on Swiggy and Zomato, the company sold its wares through distributors such as Walmart, Metro Cash and Carry, and cloud kitchen brands such as Box8.

“The big change happened in 2018, and because of the experience of selling through Box8, we thought getting into Swiggy would be a game changer and we were right,” said Bhandari.

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The Pune-based firm continued to see growth during the pandemic as well, with consumers shifting their consumption to online channels. “The repeat rates were among the highest for us compared to other brands,” he said. “And it took us only a few months to become the number one brand on Swiggy and later on Zomato.”

About 18% of the company’s sales today also come from modern trade stores and in this channel, it has partnered with Reliance Retail among other chains.

“New retail channels will give rise to new brands,” said Arpit Beri, principal, India investments, at Jungle Ventures. “Twenty to thirty years back many brands rose through modern trade and they expanded into general trade later. Then came the ecommerce boom through Amazon and Flipkart and many direct-to-consumer brands came into the picture, like Mamaearth, Boat, and Atomberg. Now we have a third retail channel that has emerged and NIC is among the best brands to have come out of that.”