Calcutta, April 26: City-based businessmen Apurva Salarpuria of the Salarpuria group and Sidharth Pansari of Primarc iVenture have invested in Dropkaffe, a Bangalore-based start-up that makes ready-to-drink dairy beverages.

The start-up has raised Rs 3.33 crore from investors, including Kanwaljit Singh of Fireside Ventures, GrowthStory, Hitesh Oberoi, CEO of Naukri.com, and Nirupa Shankar of the Brigade group.

On the investment, Pansari and Salarpuria said, "There is a huge demand for healthy and fresh food and beverage products in the market and as DropKaffe uses no preservatives and depends on natural ingredients, this has a chance of good growth, limiting the shelf life of the product."

The beverage company, which started operations about a year ago, manufactures cold coffee and bottled dairy beverages that include milkshakes and channels them through a number of stores within Bangalore. The funds raised will be used to increase the production capacity, focus more on marketing and acquire better talent.

DropKaffe has also tied-up with the National Dairy Research Institute for its new range of fruit-based smoothies having a one-month shelf life.

The start-up, founded by Lakshmi Dasaka, Chaitanya Chitta, Rakshit Kejriwal and Amar Yashlaha, plans to expand to Chennai and Hyderabad in the next 3-4 months.