Cafe chain startup Chai Break raises Rs 5 Cr from Venture Catalysts

Kolkata-based café chain startup Chai Break has raised Rs 5 crore in angel funding round in lieu of 10% stake from Venture Catalysts of Mumbai. The restaurant chain that serves hookah and snacks now valued at Rs 50 crore in the first round of an external funding.

Owned and operated by ALP Retail, the startup plans to use the funds raised for the expansion (15-20 new chain outlets), mostly in Tier II cities, reported Mint.

Founded by Aditya Ladsaria and Anirudh Poddar in 2010, Chai Break focusses on a variety of Italian cuisines, Chinese and oriental dishes and Indian etables. Its offerings include working-lunch options and full-course meals. Chai Break currently has 11 outlets, of which eight are in Kolkata, two in Bhubaneswar and one in Durgapur.

According to Poddar, Chai Break will open around 20-odd new cafés over two years, focussing mainly on East, North-East and South India. The firm is eyeing smaller towns in the east such as Siliguri, Ranchi, Patna, Guwahati and Imphal as potential markets for expansion. Down South, it will explore cities such as Bengaluru.

The company claims to have been profitable since inception. It clocked Rs 13.4 crore in revenue for the fiscal year 2017; in the current fiscal, the revenue is expected to be Rs 18 crore and it has set a target of scaling up revenue to at least Rs 50 crore by 2020.

According to the founders, they want to follow the FOCO model (franchise owned and company operated). The company currently has 300 employees, which is expected to go up to 1,000 post-expansion. There are also planning to set up outlets overseas in 7-8 years.

On Monday, Delhi-based premium tea e-tailer Vahdam Teas raised $1.4 million in its second round of funding led by existing investor Fireside Ventures.

In October, Gurugram-headquartered tea cafe chain startup Chaayos run by Sunshine Teahouse raised around $2 million from its existing investor Tiger Global Management in an internal round of funding. Prior to that, Chai Point, a Bengaluru-based tea chain raised fresh capital from existing investors for expansion.