Premium tea e-tailer Vahdam Teas secures $1.4 Mn from Fireside Ventures, others

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

The funding round also saw participation from investors, such as Singapore Angel Network, Mumbai Angels who were a part of Vahdam's angel funding round along with some HNI's.

Following the investment, founder of Fireside Ventures, Kanwaljit Singh will join Vahdam Teas as a member of its board. The company has raised an additional Rs 2 crore through a secondary transaction with some individual investors in the earlier seed round making an exit this time, reported ET.

The firm will use the capital for branding, introducing new products in existing and new categories of teas as also strengthen its warehousing & logistics in the USA.

Founded in 2015 by Bala Sarda, Vahdam Teas provides an online platform through which it ships Indian tea to customers globally. It works with about 175 tea plantations and small growers across all seven tea-growing regions in India – Darjeeling, Assam, the Nilgiris, Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, and Bihar, as well as in Nepal.

The firm currently has one warehouse in Delhi and 3 sourcing centres in Nilgiris, Assam, and Darjeeling which are used seasonally. It procures tea directly from plantations within 24-72 hours of production and delivers it to international markets within 3-12 days.

Currently, Vahdam Teas has 1,50,000 customers across 83 countries, clocking a run rate of 15,000-20,000 orders per month. With an average gross margin of over 50%, Sarda claims the company has grown 7x in revenues in the last 10 months.

Earlier this year, the firm raised $6,50,000 (over Rs 4 crore) from Fireside Ventures, Mumbai Angels, Singapore Angel Network and a clutch of eminent angel investors.

A number of other tea startups in India have also raised funding over the past months. 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.

Vahdam Teas: Website