Chai Point, a tea retail chain and an online one at that, has secured $10 million in its fresh funding round from Eight Roads Ventures, an investment arm of Fidelity which was earlier known as Fidelity Growth Partners India.
Along with Eight Roads Ventures, the funding round also witnessed the participation of existing investors of the company – Saama Capital and DSG Consumer Partners. This information is revealed through documents filed by the company with the Registrar of Companies.
Kabir Narang, managing director at Eight Roads Ventures, said,
With its focus on operations, supply chain and consumer experience, Chai Point is well positioned to emerge as one of the leading national brands in this space.
Ash Lilani, San Francisco-based managing partner and co-founder at Saama Capital, said,
We see Chai Point touching 200 stores in a short span, with a big push on the technology front where we enable more deliveries through mobile apps.
The money raised in this latest funding round will be used to expand its geographic reach to other cities from 7 cities as well as to grow the delivery component of business – Chai on Call and Chai at Work.
Founded by Amuleek Singh Bijra last year, Chai Point works on a hybrid model of service stores and delivery-only hubs across Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Pune and Mumbai. About 40% of its orders, including 1.5 lakh glasses of chai a day, are made through its mobile application.
India consumes roughly about 20% of the world’s tea. While the tea market in India is estimated to be worth Rs. 33,000 crore and has been growing at 15% annually, Tea consumption in India is 8-9 times than that of coffee. But, it has largely been restricted to roadside vendors.
In this space, Chai Point will compete with Chaayos, another Gurgaon-based tea firm which received $5 million in funding from Tiger Global.
