Tea cafe chain Chaayos raises $12m from SAIF, others

Tea cafe chain Chaayos has raised around $12 million in a fresh round of funding from investors such as SAIF Partners, Hong Kong's Integrated Capital and Singapore-based growth stage investment firm Pacatolus.

"The company will invest in offline expansion and look to double revenue with this capital infusion," Raghav Verma, co-Founder, Chaayos, told Moneycontrol.

The development was first reported by The Economic Times on Thursday.

The company has 52 outlets across the country. It ended FY18 with a revenue of around Rs 52 crore.

This funding comes after a long struggle by the company to raise capital. According to reports, it last raised $2 million from existing investor Tiger Global Management in October in an internal round of funding. This was seen more as a bridge round of funding.

It had been in talks to raise a fresh round of funding since early last year  Read: Chaayos in talks with Tiger Global, SIDBI Venture Capital to raise fresh funding.

The tea cafe chain was founded in November 2012 by Verma and Nitin Saluja. Earlier this year, Chaayos named Ajay Kaul, a former Chief Executive of Jubiliant FoodWorks, as Chief Adviser with an aim to step-up its expansion process. 

Chaayos competes with companies such as Chai Point and Tea Trails. In April, Chai Point raised $20 million in funding in a round led by Paragon Partners.

Tea has started getting the much needed attention from multiple players in the last few years. The rise in popularity can be ascertained from the fact that even coffee chains such as Cafe Coffee Day have started offering various varieties of tea under their banner.