Chaayos is a food-tech startup that has been rapidly expanding its presence in the market with its Tea Café. Its chain of neo-cafes numbering around 80 are spread over Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Noida, Gurugram, Chandigarh and Faridabad and so on. Chaayos has now raised $21.5 million in funding, $18.5 million in equity funding and the rest via the debt route. The round of investment in Chaayos has seen US-based Think Investment leading in the equity investments. with participation from existing investors, Tiger Global, SAIF Partners and others. Innoven Capital, is the investor that picked up the debt tab of $3 million.
The unique feature of the Tea café model that Chaayos operates is the options for the customers to choose from over 80,000 customised varieties of tea. The company has tried to lure the tech-savvy youngsters to its parlours by introducing novel concepts like facial ID recognition for registration in their café. This will enable them to order their favourite flavour without having to place an order each time they visit the café. What’s more, they can make their payments too without having to obtain an OTP. These may sound like gimmicks, but the young population is fascinated by such features offered at a Tea Café and it adds to their experience at these joints.
Chhayos has managed to register 1.7 million customers from these eight cities they are present in. With further expansion planned in other cities, this number will only grow.
Chaayos’ immediate target is to take the number of cafes to 300, from the present 80, within the next 3-4 years.