ⓘ Chai Kings co-founders: From left, Jahabar Sadique and Balaji Sadagopan; source: Jahabar’s Facebook account
The Chennai-based F&B startup Chai Kings on Wednesday (January 8) has raised $1 million in a seed funding round led by The Chennai Angels (TCA) with participation from Hyderabad Angels and TiE India Angels. This is the second investment of TCA in Chai Kings, the first one was back in August 2018.
Founded in 2016 as a single tea shop by Jahabar Sadique along with his friend and ex-colleague Balaji Sadagopan, Chai Kings has grown into a diversified outlet tea chain. The startup has plans to deploy the fresh funds to expand into new markets including Coimbatore, Bengaluru and Hyderabad by opening a total of over 50 outlets in these three cities by the end of February.
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At present, Chai Kings sells over 25,000 cups of tea a day which includes deliveries and corporate orders. On average, over 750,000 cups of various teas are sold in a month via 40 outlets of Chai Kings.
ⓘ Interesting Read: Startup Glossary – 40+ Startup Terms Every Startup Founder & Entrepreneur Should Know
Commenting on the investment round, Sadique told The Hindu…
“Our target is 100 stores in five years. Apart from expansions, the bulk of this funding will be utilised to strengthen our operations and supply chain management,”
Talking about the core cognition behind starting Chai Kings, Sadique told The Hindu…
“Chennai was always a coffee and a tea market as well. There is so much demand for chai in this market,”
And the Chai Kings USPs meeting challenges in the sector are…
“When we started our journey in 2016 the biggest challenge we saw was accessibility, consistency and right price point. We got all the three right and it worked well for us.” – Sadique added
Commenting on the investment round, Piyush Bhandari, the founder of Intuit Management Consultancy who led the investment from TCA said…
“We believe the company has a strong leadership team with immense potential to grow and expand across India. The new investment reiterates our commitment towards building a sustainable and scalable Indian Quick Service Restaurant.”
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