Bakery brand The Baker's Dozen bags USD 5 million in pre-series A round led by Fireside Ventures

One of India’s leading homegrown artisan bakery The Baker’s Dozen has raised USD 5 million of funding including debt.

Marquee consumer VC fund, Fireside Ventures led the equity investment, marking its first presence in the D2C Baking & Confectionery space with TBD.

TBD will use this new influx of capital to further key product innovation, team building, brand marketing efforts, distribution expansion, and in upgrading the company’s tech play.

“We must understand that bakery goods are now more commonly consumed daily as opposed to simply being a treat, and TBD is as much of a millennial favorite as it is a mother’s trusted choice.  Artisan@scale is our ‘mantra’ and we are best known for putting the widest variety of 100% whole wheat, preservative-free sourdough breads on the Indian map,” shared Aditi Handa, Co-founder and Head Baker.

Part of the amount raised will further be utilized for capital expenditure and to increase production capacity to match the increasing product demand.

The investment will also help the brand strengthen its Indian presence by amplifying its reach in tier I and tier II cities, followed by an international expansion across the Middle-East and subsequently across Southeast Asian markets.

Prayag Mohanty, Principal, Fireside Ventures, who will also be joining The Bakers Dozen as a board member, said, “Our decision to invest in The Baker's Dozen (TBD), is backed by our fund thesis of looking for innovative white spaces within the overall D2C products space. TBD brings in the packaged version of artisanal bakery products which is addressing a huge market backed by technology innovations around processing and packaging at the backend.

TBD has grown 5x achieving sales of INR 30 Cr in 2021-22, fast becoming the preferred national bakery brand across e-commerce and Q-commerce marketplaces, servicing over 3 lakh orders month on month. It has grown very capital efficiently, being EBITDA positive the last two years. With the aim of marking 5x growth in the 18-24 months, the company is currently in the process of expanding their distribution footprint through more than 100 own stores and 1000 retail touchpoints across 25 cities in India.

TBD is also recognised as one of India’s first phygital retail bakery brands, providing unique interactive experiences for its customers by bridging the gap between a digital and physical world.

“TBD has been a bootstrapped business grown steadily and with a strong foundation. That strong base has helped our rapid growth over the last two years, and we felt that it was the right time for us to choose a partner who could not only help us scale our business via capital infusion, but also through mentorship and guidance. Having had the privilege of Kanwal as a mentor for us over the last few years, Fireside was undoubtedly our first choice to collaborate with, given their background in scaling consumer brands and that they were already TBD customers,” pointed Sneh Jain, Co-Founder and Managing Director, The Baker’s Dozen.

The Indian bakery market stood at a value of nearly USD 7.6 billion in 2020. Market research suggests that it is further estimated to grow at a CAGR of 8.5% between 2021 and 2026 to reach a value of USD 12.4 billion by 2026.