The story of Ankur Jain, unchecked ambition, and ₹2,100 crores in losses
A) The Context
Picture this: It’s 2017. You walk into a Bangalore brewpub. Everyone’s drinking the same beer—white bottle, gold monkey logo. Bira 91. The “cool” beer. The “Imagined in India” beer.
Fast forward to December 2025.
That same brand? Dead. The founder? Forced out. The employees? Unpaid for 5 months. The investors? Huge losses as in the unlisted space the price of bira share was once around INR 800 and today it is trading around INR 160.
How did India’s craft beer darling collapse so spectacularly? Let’s rewind.
B) The Rise
2015
Ankur Jain had a vision. He was a University of Chicago MBA, ex-investment banker, and he’d noticed something: Indians were bored of Kingfisher. They wanted something… different. Premium. Instagram-worthy.
So he launched Bira 91.
Not just a beer—a brand. White bottles. Monkey mascot. “Imagined in India” splashed everywhere. It screamed aspiration.
And millennials ate it up.
Within two years, Bira was everywhere. Sequoia invested. Then Kirin Holdings (the Japanese beer giant). Then Sofina. The valuation hit ₹4,000 crores+.
Jain was hailed as a genius. The man who’d crack the Indian craft beer market.
But here’s the thing nobody talked about: Bira was losing money. On. Every. Single. Bottle.
C) The Math Problem
Let me show you Bira’s unit economics:
Cost to make one bottle: ₹60-70
Marketing + Distribution: ₹20-25
Total cost: ₹85-95
Selling price to distributors: ₹85-90
See it? They were burning cash to buy market share. The plan? Scale up, costs will come down, profits will follow.
Classic VC playbook.
Except… it never happened.
D) The Expansion Trap
Instead of fixing the math, Jain doubled down.
2017-2019: The Golden Years
The brand was flying. Investors kept writing checks. Revenue crossed ₹700 crores.
But losses? They kept growing too. ₹200 crores… ₹300 crores… ₹400 crores…
And nobody seemed to care. Because growth, right?
E) The Beginning of The End
2024: The Name Change Disaster
B9 Beverages (Bira’s parent company) did routine paperwork—converted from private limited to public limited.
Should’ve been simple. But in India’s alcohol industry, nothing is simple.
Every state liquor license had to be re-applied. And while they waited:
₹80 crores worth of beer expired in warehouses.
Vendors stopped supplying. Employees panicked. Jain scrambled to get licenses back.
By the time operations resumed months later, the damage was done. Distributors had moved on. Customers had forgotten Bira.
The brand had lost its fizz.
F) The Unraveling
October 2025: The Employee Revolt
250+ employees did something unprecedented. They wrote a petition to the board demanding Jain’s removal.
Their complaints:
But wait—how was the company paying Jain?
Oh, let me tell you.
G) The Family Business
While employees starved, here’s what the Jain family was doing:
The Board:
Their salaries for FY25-27:
And when auditors flagged ₹4.5 crores in “excess remuneration” from previous years?
The board waived it off.
Just like that. Poof. Gone.
Small problem: That’s illegal under the Companies Act without proper approvals.
Bigger problem: Employees found out.
H) The Investors Strike Back
By November 2025, investors had seen enough.
Kirin Holdings (20% stake, ₹400+ crores invested): “We want out.”
Sequoia/Peak XV: “No more money unless Jain leaves.”
Anicut Capital (the lender): “We’re taking over The Beer Cafe” (Bira’s only profitable business).
Jain sued them. Called it “unethical.”
But the writing was on the wall.
I) The Final Blow
Here’s what broke Jain:
The Personal Debt Trap
Jain had borrowed money to buy more Bira shares (to maintain control). He’d pledged those shares as collateral.
October 2025: Hero Enterprise chairman Sunil Munjal (who’d lent the money) invoked the pledge. Seized Jain’s shares.
Just like that, Jain lost control of his own company.
And investors gave him an ultimatum:
“Step down, or we let it die.”
J) What Happens Now?
Three options:
Option 1: Someone buys the brand for . Relaunches it. (40% chance)
Option 2: White knight investor rescues it. Fresh management. (30% chance)
Option 3: Liquidation. Everyone loses. (30% chance)
K) The Bottom Line
Ankur Jain built a brand. A damn good one.
But he forgot to build a business.
The difference?
Brands look good on Instagram. Businesses make money.
And in the end, cash flow is gravity. You can fly for a while on investor money. But eventually?
You come crashing down.
The Lesson
If you’re building a startup:
Because hype gets you funding.
Math gets you survival.
And Bira? Had all the hype. None of the math.
