The Series C raise has taken its total amount raised till date to ₹481 Cr and its pre-money valuation to ₹2,500 Cr
The Ahmedabad-based startup is also looking to expand its geographical footprint. It currently has a significant presence in North and Western India
On the financial front, Hocco’s revenue stood at ₹532 Cr in FY26, with an EBITDA loss of 10-12% of the revenue, which translates to around ₹63 Cr
Ice cream brand Hocco has raised ₹100 Cr (around $10.7 Mn) in its Series C round from existing investor Sauce.vc, taking the total amount it has raised till date to ₹481 Cr, founder and MD Ankit Chona told Inc42.
The startup last raised ₹115 Cr from Sauce.vc and the Chona family office in May 2025. With the latest funding, its pre-money valuation has jumped to ₹2,500 Cr (around $267 Mn).
Hocco plans to use the fresh capital to augment manufacturing capacity to 4 Lakh litres per day from 2.5 Lakh litres currently. The ice cream brand has opened a new manufacturing plant in Panipat, which commenced operations this week, and is looking to open another plant in South India next year.
The startup might also explore contract manufacturing at some point in the future as demand has consistently surpassed its supply capabilities, Chona said.
The Ahmedabad-based startup is also looking to expand its geographical footprint. It currently has a significant presence in North and Western India.
Chona said Hocco’s expansion strategy varies across different states based on consumption preferences. For instance, it has expanded in Telangana and Chennai recently through the retail route and in Karnataka and West Bengal through the quick commerce route, he said, adding that Delhi NCR in comparison is a purely pushcart driven market.
Currently, the startup is present across 200 self-owned parlours and restaurants, which drives 5% of its sales. Around 75% of its sales come from general trade, while the remaining 20% comes from quick commerce platforms like Instamart, Blinkit and Zepto. Hocco also has around 3,300 pushcarts plying on the country’s roads, which it is hoping to scale to 5,000 by next summer.
Hocco was founded in 2023 by the Chona family, which owned the Havmor ice cream brand since 1944 before selling it to South Korea-based Lotte Confectionery in 2017 for ₹1,020 Cr. Third-generation entrepreneur Ankit Chona, who leads the Hocco brand, decided to re-enter the ice cream industry soon after, launching Hocco after the non-compete clause with Lotte ended.
Apart from the flagship Hocco brand, the parent company also operates a premium ice cream brand ‘Hoover and Holly’, which has around 20 parlours across the country and a kulfi brand ‘Chillfi’, which is available on quick commerce. Overall, the startup has around 200 SKUs under its umbrella.
Hocco is looking to expand this number through the launch of new flavours across its brands. Some of these include ice cream cake tins under Hoover and Holly, mud kulfis under the Chillfi brand, and bun-maska-and-jam flavoured ice cream and new fruit flavours under the Hocco brand.
On the financial front, Hocco’s revenue stood at ₹532 Cr in FY26, with an EBITDA loss of 10-12% of the revenue, which translates to around ₹63 Cr.
Chona said the startup is eyeing EBITDA breakeven in FY27 on a ₹900 Cr revenue. “As a percentage, we have more than halved our losses and this year… We’ll probably try and break even on the EBITDA front (in the current financial year),” Chona said.
The startup is now eyeing a public listing in the next three years. Hocco is also looking to raise a larger round of around ₹400-500 Cr from PE investors in the near future to fuel its next phase of growth.
In the ice cream segment, Hocco competes with the likes of Kwality Wall’s, Vadilal, Amul, Mother Dairy and Havmor, along with new-age brands like NOTO, Naturals, and Go Zero. According to Chona, Hocco sits in the middle of both segments, with the sensibilities of a legacy brand but vision and brand identity of a new-age brand.
Comments are closed.