For five years, by one account, Ankur Jain's father did not speak to him.
The silence began when the family learned that the son wanted to make beer. Jain was born in Delhi to an architect and an interior designer, and in 1998 he left for the US, where he took a computer engineering degree at the Illinois Institute of Technology in 2002. He worked at Motorola, then built a healthcare business of his own and exited after about four years. It looked like a safe, successful immigrant story. He came home to India in 2008 and started importing beer.
The silence began when the family learned that the son wanted to make beer.
That was the point where his father reportedly stopped talking. The sources I read do not say how Jain felt, and I will not guess.
What almost nobody tells is how long it was before it worked. He brought in about 30 varieties not sold in India. Only in 2015 did Bira 91 launch, first brewed under contract in Belgium. He raised $1.5 million from friends, then $6 million in January 2016 from Sequoia, its first bet in alcohol. More followed: $50 million in 2018 and $30 million from Japan's Kirin in 2021. By FY23, revenue crossed $100 million.
Then it broke. A shift from a private to a public company before an IPO required new excise approvals state by state, and production and sales stumbled. FY24 revenue was Rs 638 crore against a net loss of Rs 748 crore. Debt was reported to have ballooned toward Rs 1,000 crore. Production halted in July 2025, salaries slipped, and in October more than 250 employees wrote to the board asking for his removal, citing governance failures.
On 22 July 2026 Jain stepped down and gave up his family's 17.8% stake in a settlement; the lenders withdrew their claims and his personal guarantees were released. He said the company needed fresh capital, a clear balance sheet and a management team.
For a founder the lesson is unromantic: a brand built on one person's will can grow quickly, and former employees described just that, a business where decisions revolved around Jain. The same force that carries a dream past a father's objection can carry a balance sheet past what it can bear.