Chaayos, a tea cafe chain, has raised $53 million in Series C funding round, led by Alpha Wave Ventures. The round saw participation from all existing investors Elevation Capital, Tiger Global and Think Investments.
New funds will be used for tech-enhancement, hiring and store expansion. Chaayos runs 190 stores across six cities and plans to add 100 more by the end of 2022.
Nitin Saluja, Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chaayos, said, “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.”
At Chaayos, guests can personalise their cup of tea in 80,000 combinations and IoT-enabled tea bots, called Chai Monks, make this possible. Chai monks are patented bots that brew a cup of tea in two minutes and avoid the need for training.
Deepak Gaur, Partner, Elevation Capital, said, “a unique combination of innovations in food and drinks offerings, strong leverage of technology solutions and obsession over customer satisfaction has positioned Chaayos as a clear leader in their space.”
Chaayos omni-channel approach helps guests order in chai when they cannot visit a Chaayos cafe. What started off as a niche use case, Chaayos online chai deliveries now account for 45 per cent of revenues, said the company.
The Chaayos platform powers Chaayos loyalty programme which rewards guests upon their repeat visits with real time offers. Chaayos two-click ordering mobile application is the preferred mode of ordering for 52 per cent of Chaayos regular guests. The platform has a Net Promoter Score (NPS) score of 78.