Food-tech startup Tpot, a venture focused on serving the famed Indian ‘chai-nashta’ segment of the community, has received an undisclosed amount in seed funding from Ashish Gupta, the Founder and Trustee of Ashoka University and co-founder of Evalueserve.
The Tspot team is focused on using the infused funding in expanding, reaching out to more people of the community and providing them with a serving of different flavored teas and evening snacks, by opening over 50 stores by the end of 2016. The funds will also help in team expansion and ideation of innovative products involving tea (more new flavors or green tea ice-cream!?).
Chai-Nashta is an under-served opportunity in India and is primarily unorganised. Our team has built a strong foundation in Delhi/NCR region. Having gained a good traction of consumers here, we are confident to establish our brand presence in the other markets too.
Our customers will get the same Tpot essence in each outlet they choose to visit. It is a favourite hangout place, for smart, casual and family visit.
says Robin Jha, co-founder and CEO of the company.
Three years ago, Tpot started out as a passion project of three young entrepreneurs who wanted to channel their love for tea and snacks. The company has thus set sight on a 2-fold revenue target of Rs. 12 crore by the year end, inducing a 300 per cent YoY growth for the company. It also aims to remain true to its vision and try to serve over 0.5 million cups of tea per month by December 2016.
Ashish Gupta emphasizes the problem Tspot is solving and why he has invested in the idea as a whole saying that,
Being an ardent tea lover, I met Robin in an event and the love for the herbal teas brought us together. Over subsequent meetings, I realized the magnitude of the problem that they were solving.
I was quite impressed by the concept of Tpot and the team of Robin, Asad and Atit. The team had spent considerable amount of time in understanding the consumer preferences and are capable to create a niche for themselves in this highly fragmented market. Therefore I decided to be a part of this journey
After the company realizes its target of opening over 50 stores in the Delhi/NCR region by the end of this year, it is planning for a multi-city launch by the next year. Besides the multi-city expansion, Tpot will also be expected to enter the food delivery segment(an already crowded one!) in the coming year. Robin believes that this will also help create more jobs and thus contribute to the ‘Skill India’ initiative of Modi government. It also plans to launch a mobile app and make it easy for you to get your favorite flavor of tea and refreshments delivered at your doorstep.
Tpot was also one of the ten startups to be selected under the BW Accelerate Mentorship Programme, and mentored by the director of the accelerator, Ashu Agarwal himself. BW Accelerate is also proud to announce that it has recorded over eighty per cent success from its first batch.
