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Startup Story: How Chai Point quenches India’s thirst for hot tea

Chai Point was initiated to deliver freshly brewed cups of tea to offices. Let's take a look at how they became the best of i
Chai Point was initiated to deliver freshly brewed cups of tea to offices. Let’s take a look at how they became the best of its kind in India.

Don’t we all love a hot cup of tea during a break at work or while just chilling at home? Perfectly brewed fresh tea can leave you refreshed and satisfied. What if it can be brought straight to wherever you are within minutes? Chai Point (1) is the answer for you. Chai Point is an Indian food and beverage chain which offers a variety of tea-based beverages all over the country. The business was initiated with the primary goal to serve officers and working professionals who are in need of a tea break.

You can also order from them online and get it delivered within 30 minutes. The units of Chai Point called Chai-on-call and boxC.in operate consistently to bring the best service to their customers. They have a mobile app for the easy booking of orders. Chai Point is also accessible on Amazon.in, thus making it more convenient for you to sip their freshly brewed hot beverages. They use only natural and fresh ingredients which gives their Tea an aromatic punch to it.

The birth of Chai Point

Chai Point Founder and CEO - Amuleek Singh
Chai Point Founder and CEO – Amuleek Singh

The founder and CEO of Chai Point, Amuleek Singh is a Harvard graduate from Jammu and Kashmir. After obtaining his engineering degree from Punjab, he worked with Microsoft for a while. Soon after Amuleek completed his MBA from Harvard, he decided that he wanted to do a startup. His father was an IPS officer, and he had sufficient support from his family for this venture.

Amuleek believes that India runs on Chai. It is this same motto that the company has adopted and upheld through all these years. When considering options to do a startup, Amuleek observed that no company had ever before attempted a single business for tea. He was also aware of the role that a hot cup of tea played in the daily life of Indians.

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The shortage of a reliable and tidy source of tea during a busy schedule was a trouble for the population. It is this issue that Amuleek intended to solve through his startup. Thus the first store of Chai Point was set up in Bangalore, Karnataka as a part of Mountain Trail Food Pvt. Ltd. The business soon started flourishing as it was a space without much competition. The company soon witnessed a more significant flow of customers, and the average order size was also favorable.

Maintaining the authenticity

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Chai Point brews its unique varieties and flavors of tea, using only the finest ingredients. It is obtained from sources like deluxe properties and merchants from Assam, Darjeeling, and the Nilgiris. Chai Point buys their tea leaves only from the most trustworthy tea estate around the country. The selection of the best kind of tea leaves is a detailed process that takes place every harvest season. Chai Point has employed skilled tea tasters to choose the most excellent assortments from premium farms. Moreover, they do not add any artificial pigments or seasoning thus making sure that health is not compromised while achieving flavor. The process of tea making is an area that Chai Point leaves no room for mistakes.

Chai Point has its original brand for selling its packaged food products. This brand named “Made for Chai” includes various types of snacks that can be relished with a cup of Chai Point Tea. It comprises food items like Multigrain biscuits, Gud Chana, Mathri, Quinoa Puff, Cake Rusk, Masala Peanuts, and Cornflakes Mix. These snacks are prepared in their own kitchen based on authentic recipes developed by them. Chai Point does a thorough study of traditional Indian snacks to come up with the perfect recipes that fulfill the customers.

What makes Chai Point unique?

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Chai Point stands apart because of its excellent policies and customer services. The mobile app frequently provides many discounts and offers to its customers, and you can also view information about the different beverages and varieties of tea available. All their units have a “no smoking” sign, and the customers are strictly not allowed to smoke inside the store. However, keeping in mind that some people like to smoke a cigarette while having a sip of tea, they have set up separate smoking areas outside the stores.

Chai Point proves that even the tiniest thoughtful strategies can have a high impact while earning a reputation among the customers. They also keep up their responsibility towards the environment by using only electric bikes for delivery. Through various such measures, Chai Point has always maintained and improved the quality of the brand. They regularly check in on their supply chain and delivery of products to make sure no shortcomings are made. Chai Point believes in taking measured risks when it comes to their success in this business.

What’s in store?

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Chai Point tries to keep its menu as original and straightforward as possible. Instead of listing down dozens of varieties of tea that people might be reluctant to try, Chai Point offers a few options of hot chai and cold chai. They have realized that people are more interested in ordering chai that they have tasted before than a new flavor they never even heard of. As of now, the most popular and frequently ordered types of tea from Chai Point are masala tea, lemon tea, ginger tea, and dum tea. They also work on new creative recipes like masala tea latte.

In order to cater directly to offices and corporate firms, Chai Point has an enterprise called Chai @ work. They have set up mini-stores in more than 50 large corporate offices across India. Chai Point also provides many tea dispensers and heat-retaining flask to small businesses. Presently, Chai Point sells over 300,000 cups every day and has expanded to more than 100 stores across eight cities – Bangalore, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad Gurgaon, Mumbai, Noida, and Pune.

Investments and fundings

The primary investors at Chai Point were the CEO of US Confectionery Major Hershey’s, John Bilbrey, Sanjay Mirchandani, Promod Bhasin, and D.S. Brar. Other investors are Eight Road Ventures (Lead Investor, formerly Fidelity Growth Partners India), DSG Investors, Saama Capital, and Paragon Partners.

Through the first round of funding conducted in September 2015, Chai Point raised a sum of 10 million USD. Later in 2018, Series C funding was conducted which turned out to be the biggest source of funding so far with a total of 20 million USD.

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