In February last year, the startup raised $12 million from A91 Partners.
The company – which sells dry fruits, trail mixes, nut protein bars and muesli – will use the funds to grow its D2C channel and distribution network, it said in a statement.
Founded in 2016 by Vikas Nahar, Happilo competes with Nutty Gritties, Cornitos and Rostaa in the nuts and dry fruits segment.
The company said it is a “profitable, category leader” that has grown its business by 4x in the last 24 months.
“Partnering with MOPE will help accelerate our growth plans and significantly scale the business from current levels,” Nahar, who is also its CEO, said.
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The investment will be used for significant product expansion across healthy snacking categories, acquisition of synergistic food brands, brand building, capacity expansion and deepening its distribution infrastructure, he added.
“This will help us serve our customers better and help us achieve our Rs 2,000 crore revenue target in the next 4 years,” he said.
Motilal Oswal raised a $320 million (Rs 2,300 crore) fund – IBEF III – in 2018.
Happilo is its tenth investment, with almost 97% of its capital committed already.
“As the country increasingly moves online, we believe the digital channels will be a strong enabler for consumer businesses to scale at a rapid pace,” said Vishal Tulsyan, managing director and CEO of MOPE.
Happilo marks MOPE’s entry into the tech-enabled consumer franchisees that have the first-mover advantage in large unorganized categories, Tulsyan added.
MOPE recently launched IBEF IV with a target corpus of Rs 4,500 crore ($600 million) and achieved its first close at Rs 2,660 crore in November 2021.
“Covid-19 has emphasized the importance of healthy eating and nutritious food in the mind of every customer. The MOPE investment will help the company accelerate its plans across brand, product and distribution,” said VT Bharadwaj, partner, A91 Partners.
