Chaayos – “Experiment with Chai is” is one of the fastest growing tea startup of India.
In India, chai (brewing tea) is more than just a cup of tea. It is something people start their day with; a necessary drink to wake you up in morning as well as refreshment drink with afternoon snacks. Our generations have had experimented with Chai and its flavors, and for the matter of fact there is a unique definition of a perfect blend for every ‘chai addict’. In every home of this country, no matter of what status, people use to drink tea; or one can say a kind of beverage which is mandatory to keep the day running.
But after being so important and famous drink, we never heard of any famous brand or chain outlet dedicated to chai only. There are 2000 plus coffee chains available in every corner of any city but there was a time when you could not get a neat and clean cup of tea with a nice ambiance at a café. People had to depend on to their home or any street side shop to get a cup of tea of their choice. This is the core seed behind the foundation of Chaayos.
“This was the main idea of Chaayos – having a place where you can go get a fresh hygienic cup of tea made to your liking with a nice ambiance and relax settling.” – says CEO and founder of Chaayos Nitin Saluja.
How Chaayos Started
Chaayos is an initiative by two techies – Nitin Saluja and Raghav Verma graduated from IIT Bombay and IIT Delhi respectively. Before the foundation of Chaayos, they used to work in a US consulting firm Opera Solutions. Nitin, for the matter of fact, was always a chai freak.
During this phase, Nitin met Raghav Verma through a friend in common who was also working for the US consulting firm Opera Solutions. They both shared the idea and convinced to kick it off this craziest idea on the floor of entrepreneurship. They both quit the top paying US based IT job and gave their every ounce of blood to their startup. Business areas like – Product development and supply chain are with Nitin and areas under business development and marketing are under Raghav concern. They named their startup – CHAAYOS and the first outlet store was opened in November 2012 in Gurgaon now Gurugram.
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Taste and Ambience
When we see Chai as a product, it is very simple. But in Chaayos, customers can get 25 variety of tea and those can be customized in 12000 different ways! “Experiments with Tea” – this is the tagline of Chaayos. The versatility of tea with a wide range of flavors this is what their brand believes in.
They have presented very uniqueness in their tea menu or you can say they have bold enough to do an experiment.
Another most important feature they have added to their business is the ambiance of the outlets. The Chaayos café represents the “Chai way of life”. The interior design of the café is as such that it relates the very core concept of tea; lamps made of cutting Chai glasses, kettles and Chai samples in taste tubes that show the experimental nature of the firm.
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The Business Insight of Chaayos
Chaayos started its journey by opening its first and single store in Gurgaon Delhi in DLF cyber City. Today they have approx 16 stores running in Delhi including Mumbai. This year they are planning to open 50 Plus cafes in Bangalore, Mumbai, and Delhi. As of now, they have 200 plus working headcount for their firm and they sell approx 500 Plus order per day per outlet.
Raghav Verma, co-founder of Chaayos, says Chaayos has a long journey of uphill tasks in upcoming years. This includes increasing the number of outlets, establishing a footprint across all metros, building a strong team of people for each department like production, marketing, delivery etc.
“We are a chai company, not a chai cafe. Whenever and wherever there is an opportunity to serve somebody ‘chai’, we want to be present.”
– Raghav Verma.
“Our aim is to deliver all across NCR in less than 20 minutes by August end. Chai is something for which people would not want to wait too long.” – informs Nitin.
The Highest selling outlet of Chaayos turned into an annual income of Rs 1cr. This was the greatest milestone in the business journey of Chaayos.
Chaayos- A Well backed Venture
As any other business Chaayos was also required investors to raise funds to grow its business and raised funds from Zishaan Hayath in the angel round.
Chaayos also raised 5 million dollars from Tiger Global Management.
Chaayos is betting that the next phase of its growth will be powered by tea delivery services and packaged tea blend that it sells through its café as well as on online market places such as Amazon and Snapdeal. Company Sells 10,000 cups of tea in a month and is targeting to sell three million cups of tea within 18 months with plans to open Chai on demand services. For this, they have tied up with many logistic companies to deliver Chai in 15 mins.
Nitin and Raghav have taken a simple concept to a very high height. But for them, this is just a beginning. They are all set with new ideas and concept and working on to mix these new ones with the already implemented new ones. There is no doubt that they have rivals too in the market like Chai Point and Chai Thela which are giving them a neck to neck competition.
last time I had a terrible experience at chaayos Nehru place outlet. I ordered 2 chai in desi kullar and was pathetic and it cost Rs 101/-.its better I would have tea at a road side stall at least that will satisfy me at only Rs 10/-. I don’t have any problem in paying 100 rupee for a tea but in return my expectation was high.
I think that was the last time I visited any chaayos outlet.
Will update about the same to Mr. Nitin Saluja hope he will take appropriate action towards it.
very good atmosphere in select city walk at chayoos good behaviour of staff nice tea and beverage …… appreciated the chayoos ….
Well, the first time I went to Chayoos was for a regular gtg and it turned out on discuss how it had become a huge startup and how following what u like eating/drinking is making all the difference. Cheers to you guys for being such a sport. It takes courage to give up a well-settled job and get out on the battle to establish something of your own.
I don’t know if you guys would be reading this but to keep you people stay enthusiast thora motivation toh banta h.
P.S. my father is a fan of ur elaichi vali chai now. 😛 m getting out of the budget.
Yeah, these guys are simply doing the business with only high-profit motive. The Chai is so costly; not everyone can afford. If you talk about Waaghbakri outlets, they too provide good tea, although their prices are also not so less. Still, they are offering take away tea of 200 Ml at just Rs. 25/-