Top Chai Startups In India That Are Brewing Up Success By Innovating, Experimenting

India is the second largest tea producer in the world and according to a survey conducted by the Tea Board of India, close to 88% of the total households in India have reported consumption of tea. Overall, around 64% of the total population in India drinks tea.

Tea in India i.e. chai is a concoction of tea blended with water, sugar, and milk. According to the Tea Board Of India. India¡¯s tea production has been on the rise, capturing the growing demand for tea across the country. And business is flourishing for sure with a number of tea-based startups coming up.

MBA Chaiwala

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If you are determined to do something different in life, then nothing is impossible. Prafull Billore wanted to do an MBA and work at a multinational corporation. Billore however is in the business of selling tea and his company is called MBA Chai Wala. He started it in 2017 and has recorded a turnover of Rs 3 crore in the financial year 2019-20. Prafull who now lives in Ahmedabad and is famous as 'MBA Chaiwala' across the country. He has expanded his business in over 100 cities including Bhopal, Srinagar, Surat, and Delhi now plans to open 100 more by the end of the year and generate employment for at least 500 people, reported Business Insider.

Prafull who quit MBA to start his own tea stall was once told by his family that he was bringing shame and even his friends mocked him.

Since opening franchises all over India, he has been invited to IIMs for speeches. "People who mocked me, now ask me for advice. I tell them, ¡®The degree doesn¡¯t matter, the knowledge does.¡¯ I¡¯m a full-time chai wala and I love what I do.'"

Chai Point

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Founded in 2010 by Amuleek Singh Bijral, Chai Point is part of Mountain Trail Food Pvt. Ltd is the first tea startup in India that serves hot tea with fresh ingredients to refresh working professionals with over 300,000 cups sold every day. The company has more than 100 outlets across the country. Amuleek Singh Bijral studied MBA at Harvard Business School. Amuleek's business has increased from Rs 88 crores in the financial year 2018 to Rs 190 crores in the financial year 2020.

According to his calculations, India has a big market for tea and produces 911 million kg per year, valued at almost Rs 33,000 crore

Chaayos

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Whether you are catching up on your morning dose of caffeine or meeting a client for work, Chaayos offers the perfect chai in the morning with a healthy breakfast on the go. Founded by two IITians, Nitin Saluja and Raghav Verma, Chaayos was built with the aim to serve a fresh, custom-made cup of chai to its consumers in 2012. The company opened its first outlet in Cyber City, Gurgaon. Now the duo is running 190 stores across 6 cities and plans to add another 100 by the end of 2022. They let guests personalise their fresh tea from over 80,000+ customisations options. It includes some unique recipes like green chilli tea, and aam papad tea as well as quick bites, chaat, and food. According to Statista, Chaayos¡¯ revenue in the financial year 2020 was around Rs 1,000 crore.

Chaayos has raised $53 million (around Rs 414 crore) for tech enhancement, hiring and store expansion as it plans to add 100 stores by the end of this year.

The company said the funding round was led by Alpha Wave Ventures with participation from all existing investors -- Elevation Capital, Tiger Global and Think Investments, reported Economic Times.

Chai Sutta Bar

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Anubhav Dubey first tried his hand at CA and later UPSC but failed. He then decided to become an entrepreneur. In 2016, Dubey along with his friends Anand Nayak and Rahul Patidar opened a tea-cafe chain, '?Chai Sutta Bar' outside a girls¡¯ hostel in Indore. They started serving tea in the most environmentally-friendly way in Kulhad and gradually added other flavours such as Adrak Chai, Chocolate Chai, Masala Chai, Elaichi Chai, Tulsi Chai, Kesar Chai, etc to their menu. Hailing from a middle-class family all three came to know that after water, tea is the most consumed beverage across the world and after roaming the Indian streets they realised that the demand for chai is everywhere and decided to start a tea-cafe chain.

After lots of struggle, ups and downs, Chai Sutta Bar has scaled to over 400 outlets in over 190 cities across the country and 5 outlets abroad and sells over 4.5 lakh kulhad tea every day. The turnover of the outlet is a whopping Rs 100 crore with the company¡¯s turnover being around ?6 crore.

Teabox

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Founded by Kausshal Dugarr in 2012, Teabox is the first and leading vertically integrated premium tea brand in the world that delivers delicious teas to the tea-curious. The brand gained worldwide popularity, especially in the United States, India and Russia. Indian business tycoon Ratan Tata who has a history of pioneering business strategy has invested an undisclosed amount of funding in Teabox. By 2019 Teabox has served 1 billion cups of tea in 117 countries to its customers from its warehouse in Siliguri. The start-up has raised around $14 million in funding from big giants like Accel, JAFCO Asia, RB Investments, DBS Bank, Dragoneer Investment Group and individual investors including Ratan Tata, Robert Bass, Cameron Jones. The company works with around 150+ plantations in Darjeeling, Assam, Nilgiri and Nepal.

After gaining worldwide popularity and growing year on year, the brand has been focusing on offline expansion and opened experiential stores at Bengaluru and Mumbai international airport and teas are sourced from across 120 tea estates in India and Nepal and are priced from ?8,000 a kg to ?2 lakh a kg. Besides teas, the stores also offer contemporary tea ware and unique tea gifts such as a box of Darjeeling teas along with a book on Darjeeling, a box of floral teas (marigold, rose, jasmine), etc, for connoisseurs of teas.

Chai Thela

Chai Thela

Founded by Pankaj Judge in 2014, Chai Thela serves healthy and homemade tea varieties with some snacks that go well with tea to its customers in nine states with 35 outlets across the country. After failing in his earlier venture, Pankaj Judge founded his second venture Chai Thela with the seed funds received from three friends ¨C Taranjeet Sapra, Peeyush Bhardwaj & Bishneet Singh. In 2016, a Noida-based quick service restaurant chain raised Rs 1.5 crore from micro-venture capital firm Quarizon in its pre-Series-A round.

¡°We are happy to have Quarizon on board as an investor and strategic partner. Quarizon understands scale, and strategy and has the right approach for growth and we look forward to a successful association with them,¡± says Pankaj Judge, Founder, Chai Thela.

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