CHINI KUM raises ₹1.64 crore pre-seed for its zero-sugar prebiotic drinks

What's the deal? CHINI KUMDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a Noida-based beverage startup, has closed a ₹1.64 crore ($197,000) pre-seed round to fund its zero-sugar prebiotic drinks. The round, which valued the roughly year-old company at about $1.13 million, came entirely from seven angel investors, including Deepika Agarwal, Swati Singhal, and Aditya Babbar. No fund took part.

What's the endgame? CHINI KUM sells a carbonated line it calls POPDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → alongside a still range, in flavours including lemon and mango. Its drinks carry no added sugar, using stevia and monk fruit extract for sweetness, with prebiotic fibre giving the category its name. A 250ml can holds about 18 calories.

Why now? The round opened in January 2026 and closed on August 29. Founder Priyank Jain announced it on LinkedIn: "Happy to share that our pre-seed round, announced earlier this January, got closed at a total raise of ₹1.64 Cr!"

Where the money goes: Almost all of it funds inventory. CHINI KUM owns no plant, so it pays up front for production runs, cans, and labels, then waits for stock to sell through platforms that settle later. That is why D2C brands raise more often, and in smaller pieces, than software companies.

What could go wrong? CHINI KUM sells through Swiggy InstamartDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Flipkart MinutesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and its own site — channels that reach buyers in several cities without a distributor. But the same platforms charge for visibility, control search ranking, and can drop a slow-selling product. Repeat purchase is the number that matters, and stevia and monk fruit carry an aftertaste some buyers never accept.

The signal: At $197,000, this is a small round even by pre-seed standards, but it lands in a category incumbents are chasing. In May 2025, PepsiCoDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → completed its $1.95 billion purchase of Poppi, an American prebiotic soda brand — proof that a drink defined by what it leaves out can be worth nearly $2 billion. ITC has extended its range into sugar-free territory too, so the shelf CHINI KUM competes on already carries zero-sugar options from companies with national distribution.

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Image credit: Healthy Living