Tea cafe chain Chaayos plans to have 100 stores by the end of this year. The company said on Thursday that they have raised $ 53 million (roughly Rs 414 crore) for tech enhancements, hiring and store expansion. The funding round was led by Alpha Wave Ventures with participation from all existing investors — Elevation Capital, Tiger Global and Think Investments.
In a statement, it said the new funds will be used for tech enhancement, hiring, and store expansion. Chaayos was founded in 2012 by Nitin Saluja and Raghav Verma and currently operates 190 stores across 6 cities. The company plans to add another 100 by the end of 2022. Also read:
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. The statement said the company's facial recognition software enables faster checkouts and payments.
"Like always, we will continue to grow our cafe footprint and go deeper into the cities we are present in and explore new markets. We are also continuously on the lookout to hire talent to handle the scale that we aspire for," Saluja said.
"A unique combination of innovations in food and drinks offerings, strong leverage of technology solutions and obsession with customer satisfaction has positioned Chaayos as a clear leader in their space", said Deepak Gaur, Partner, Elevation Capital.
As per the statement, the latest capital raise will help the company deepen their technology investments to further enhance its guest experience and build a ubiquitous brand that is an integral part of Indian society for decades to come.
