[Funding alert] Tiger Global-backed Chaayos raises $45 mn in Series C funding

Sunshine Teahouse Pvt. Ltd, which runs tea café chain chaayos, has raised $45 million in its Series C  funding round from a clutch of new and existing investors.

With this round, the company is valued at between $225-250 million.

Alpha Wave Ventures led this funding round and existing investors like Tiger Global Management, Elevation Capital and Think Investments also participated in this round.

The Delhi-based Chaayos was founded in 2012 by Nitin Saluja and Raghav Verma, It now has more than 150 active cafes across Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Hyderabad, Chennai and Karnal.

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The company announced earlier this year that it is looking forward to expanding offline and plans to open 500 tea cafes in the next 2-3 years according to VCCircle.

In a sector that was badly hit during the pandemic, the company still managed to grow due to its packaged products business.

Chaayos launched a range of instant and herbal tea products in 2020. The company was also planning to launch 20 more products under its product portfolio packaged around the vision of ‘Meri Wali Chai’.

Its packaged products are retailed on its website and leading e-tailers such as Amazon, Flipkart and BigBasket.

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Currently, 40% percent of the company’s total sales are offline and the rest comes from online including its own store chaayos.com and fast e-commerce players.

In Feb 2021, Chaayos had raised $21.5 million in a Series B2 round led by San Francisco-based investment firm Think Investments with participation from InnoVen Capital.

About Chaayos

Their mission is to help ease these seemingly endless pressures of modern existence using a traditional recipe for Relaxation i.e. Chai and Snacks that go along with it.

Sunshine Teahouse Private Limited known as ‘Chaayos’ was formed with the vision to create a unique tea experience for the consumers of India. With several tea experiments, today the customers of India can easily have access to a good cup of tea and snacks.