Aiming to expand its outlet count and introducing new tea products, ‘chai-nashta’ specialised startup Tpot has raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from Ashish Gupta, founder and trustee of Ashoka University and co-founder of Evalueserve. He is also the principal investor at Tpot Café.
Tpot plans to expand its presence by taking its outlet count to over 50 by the end of the year. There are 20 functional Tpot outlets across the Delhi/NCR region at the moment. The fund will be used in channelizing the team expansion and on the ideation of introducing innovative products involving tea.
Robin Jha, the co-founder, and CEO of Tpot, said, “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.”
Tpot was founded by three young corporate individuals, (CA’s and MBA), who turned into food entrepreneurs for their love of tea. Going by its current revenue figure of Rs 6 crores, the company has set itself a target of Rs 12 crores by the year end.
Implying 300 per cent YoY growth, it aims to serve 0.5 million cups of tea per month by December this year. Some of the prominent Tpot outlets are located at T3 Airport Delhi, Rajiv Chowk Metro Station, Make my trip, Go ibibo, BPTP Park Centra, World Trade Tower, and Malviya Nagar.
Gupta, who is also an ardent tea lover, said, “I was quite impressed by the concept of Tpot and the team of Robin, Asad, and Atit. The team had spent a considerable amount of time in understanding the consumer preferences and is capable of creating a niche for themselves in this highly fragmented market. Therefore, I decided to be a part of this journey.”
Tpot expects to go high on packaged tea and delivery of refreshments at home. It wants to be a part of the growing story of health and wellness market in India through its offerings.story of health and wellness market in India through its offerings.
Their future plans also include contributing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Skill India’ campaign. “With our retail expansion, we are hopeful to expand the team. We are looking to hire a lot of fresher’s and train them to work with us. This will be our contribution to the “Skill India” initiative of the government. We will also look to do our bit for the society by working for the people in tea growing areas of India,” Jha added.
