Bira 91, once a poster child for India’s craft beer revolution, is reportedly battling internal revolt, regulatory paralysis, and a collapsing deal with BlackRock after a paperwork error exposed deep cracks in the company’s governance.
Ankur Jain, founder and CEO of the ₹4,370 crore beer brand, is reportedly facing pressure from his own employees to step down after a botched corporate name change halted operations across key states.
The compliance misstep triggered a chain reaction that has now frozen ₹80 crore worth of inventory, sunk a ₹500 crore investment from BlackRock, and ignited a governance crisis.
Shubham Garg, founder of an AI firm in Gurugram, outlined the unraveling in a detailed LinkedIn post, alleging that 250 employees have signed petitions to remove Jain.
The trouble began when Bira changed its registered name from “B9 Beverages Private Limited” to “B9 Beverages Limited.” In India’s tightly regulated liquor market, that meant restarting the entire licensing and excise approval process—state by state.
“Each state treats you as a new entity,” Garg noted. “Every licence, label, and excise approval must be rebuilt from scratch.”
The fallout was swift: disrupted supply chains, ballooning working capital, delayed receivables, and investor withdrawal.
Worse, the company’s internal structure offered little defense. Garg highlighted the absence of independent directors, audit committees, or compliance oversight. “Just the founder, his wife, and his mother running a ₹4,000+ crore enterprise on instinct instead of governance,” he wrote.
The saga mirrors recent collapses like GoMechanic, BlueSmart, and BharatPe, where startup ambition outpaced regulatory discipline. “We’ve built a startup culture that celebrates growth reviews, not audit reviews,” Garg added. “In finance, mistakes rarely kill companies, but neglected compliance often does.”
