[Funding alert] The Baker’s Dozen raises $5 mn in funding

The Baker’s Dozen, a direct-to-consumer (D2C) bakery brand has raised $5 million in a mix of debt and equity funding round from Fireside Ventures.

The company plans to use the funds to invest in R&D, hire C-suite level executives, market the brand. It also use the capital to expand its distribution network, upgrade the company's technology, including demand forecasting, and expand its bakery capacity to meet growing demand.

The Mumbai-based The Baker’s Dozen was founded in 2013 by Aditi Handa and Sneh Jain, It produces sourdough bread, cakes, cookies and crackers from its factory near Ahmedabad in Gujarat.

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It has seen its sales grow 5 times to Rs 30 crore in FY22 as the company made significant strides online through e-commerce marketplaces like Amazon and BigBasket and Swiggy.

“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”, said, Aditi Handa, co-founder and head baker, The Baker’s Dozen.

“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. Having sold over a million+ sourdoughs already, our diverse portfolio of handcrafted breads, teatime cakes, cookies, snacks and premixes fill a distinctive need gap for our customers who find our brand aspirational yet accessible,” she added.

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Over the next 18-24 months, the brand plans to expand its distribution footprint through over 100 stores and 1000 retail touchpoints across 25 cities in India.

“Our decision to invest in Baker's Dozen is backed by our fund thesis of looking for innovative white spaces within the overall D2C products space. They bring the packaged version of artisanal bakery products, which is addressing a huge market, backed by technology innovations around processing and packaging”, said, Prayag Mohanty, principal, Fireside Ventures.

About The Baker’s Dozen

They started The Baker’s Dozen in 2013 with their love for sourdough, the pate ferment, the culture of what makes a bread sing. They wanted to learn and perfect the art of sourdough and share this love with their fellow Mumbaikars. They started this company with 4 bakers who knew nothing other than the fact that they were going to learn and love their sourdough.

They had a small kitchen in Dadar and sold from a store in Prabhadevi. On their first commercial day of production, they hand crafted 25 loaves of bread and they were so happy and proud. Today almost 8 years later, they hand shape more than 10,000 loaves of bread a day and share their most loved creations with all of India.

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Each team member of their production team has imbibed the company’s motto of producing honestly delicious, fresh and healthy products to ensure each customer’s trust in the brand.