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Tea cafe chain Chaayos on Thursday said it had raised USD 53 million (around Rs 414 crore) for tech enhancement, hiring, and store expansion as it plans to add 100 stores by the end of this year.
The company said the funding round was led by Alpha Wave Ventures with participation from all existing investors — Elevation Capital, Tiger Global, and Think Investments.
New funds will be used for tech enhancement, hiring, and store expansion, it said in a statement. Founded in 2012 by Nitin Saluja and Raghav Verma, Chaayos runs 190 stores across six cities and plans to add another 100 by the end of 2022.
At Chaayos, guests can personalize their fresh cup of ‘chai’ in 80,000 combinations, and Chaayos IoT-enabled tea bots called Chai Monks make this possible. It said the company’s facial recognition software enables faster checkouts and payments.
The latest capital raise will help us deepen our technology investments to enhance our guest experience further and build a ubiquitous brand that will be an integral part of Indian society for decades.
“Like always, we will continue to grow our cafe footprint, go deeper into the cities we are in, and explore new markets. We are also continuously looking to hire talent to handle the scale that we aspire for,” Saluja said.
Deepak Gaur, Partner, Elevation Capital, said, A unique combination of innovations in food and drinks offerings, substantial leverage of technology solutions, and obsession over customer satisfaction has positioned Chaayos as a clear leader in their space.
