Sula is what Bira wanted to become

Last week, the 26-year-old wine company filed for an IPO. It might just become the most fashionable Indian alcohol brand to go public.

The draft IPO prospectus of Sula Vineyards is more of a playbook. Filed late last week by the Mumbai-based wine company, the prospectus is a 460-page manual on navigating the Indian market and the persistence required to build a business out of alcohol in India.

Sula goes back to the 1990s. It was founded and is run by second-generation entrepreneur Rajeev Samant. It set up its first vineyard in the city of Nashik in Maharashtra in 1996 on a piece of land owned by Samant’s family and introduced its first wine in 2000. It was seed-funded by family, friends and …

Author

Harveen Ahluwalia

Harveen is a co-founder at The Morning Context, and leads our Internet coverage, overseeing a team of reporters writing on startups and tech. She has previously worked as a media, consumer and tech reporter at The Ken and Mint. At The Morning Context, she writes on startups, venture capital, consumer and media businesses—from e-commerce to healthtech to streaming.

Editor, Internet

harveen@mailtmc.com

Mumbai

Author

T Surendar

Surendar helps lead the newsroom at The Morning Context as executive editor. Over the years, Surendar has worked in industries from pharmaceuticals to diamonds, as well as a stint as an equity analyst. In his long career as a business journalist, he has led teams at The Times of India, India Today and Fortune India. He was part of the founding team at Forbes India and interned at and published in The Times, London.

Executive Editor

surendar@mailtmc.com

Mumbai