Distil raises $7.7 Mn in Series A led by Jungle and CE Ventures

Distil, a specialty chemicals startup, has raised $7.7 million in Series A funding led by Singapore’s Jungle Ventures and UAE’s CE-Ventures, the corporate venture capital platform of Crescent Enterprises, with participation from strategic investors Rubamin, PI Industries Vice Chairperson Mayank Singhal, and India Quotient. 

This brings Distil’s total funding to date to $10.8 million. In June last year, the startup had raised $3.1 million in its seed round led by Jungle Ventures through its First Cheque@Jungle platform. 

The proceeds will be deployed to expand its product portfolio, strengthen enterprise partnerships, and deepen R&D efforts to serve high-value industrial applications. Distil is also focused on enhancing its export pipeline as global manufacturers seek reliable and cost-efficient alternatives in specialty chemicals.

Founded in 2021 by Atanu Agarrwal and Viraj Shah, Distil develops advanced specialty chemicals used in paints & coatings, plastics, and construction materials. It runs an R&D-first, asset-light model, leveraging India’s underutilized chemical manufacturing capacity to scale production without heavy capex.

The startup claims to have scaled rapidly, growing from pre-revenue to $7 million in annual sales, while serving over 100 enterprise customers and building a 19-member R&D and engineering team.

Earlier this year, Scimplify, a platform for sourcing and manufacturing specialty chemicals, had raised $40 million in a Series B funding round co-led by Accel and Bertelsmann India Investments. It also competes with Mstack, Atomgrid, Covvalent, and Elchemy.