Decoding Third Wave Coffee’s Series C round, captable and valuation

Coffee chain firm Third Wave Coffee recently scooped up $35 million in a Series C round led by homegrown private equity firm Creaegis. Existing investor WestBridge Capital also participated in the round.

While the Bengaluru-based company did not disclose more details of the round, Fintrackr has sifted through its regulatory filings to decode the round break-up, captable, and exact valuation.

The board at Third Wave Coffee passed a special resolution to issue 4,54,182 Series C CCPS at an issue price of Rs 5,544 to raise Rs 251.8 crore or $31 million, its regulatory filing sourced from the Registrar of Companies shows.

Creaegis on the behalf of CIF II fund led the round with Rs 173 crore while the rest of the amount of Rs 78.8 crore was poured by WestBridge during its Series C round.

According to data intelligence platform TheKredible, the company has been valued at Rs 1,276 crore or $155 million (post-allotment).

Following the fresh proceeds, Creaegis holds 13.61 % while WestBridge and Udaan’s co-founder Sujeet Kumar own 32.62% and 5.64%, respectively. Third Wave Coffee’s co-founders, Sushant Goel, Ayush Bathwal, and Anirudh Sharma cumulatively command 26.03% of the company.

Six-year-old Third Wave Coffee is a coffee chain that offers a curated food menu and handpicked coffee. It has cafes across different Indian cities namely Hyderabad, Coonoor, Bengaluru, Delhi (NCR), Mumbai, Chandigarh, and Pune.

It claims to have about 109 stores, of which 50% are operational in Bengaluru. The firm is looking to add another 50-60 outlets this year across metro and tier-I cities.

Third Wave Coffee registered a 2.7X growth in its operating revenue to Rs 31.75 crore in FY22. The company’s losses soared 3.3X to Rs 14.5 crore in the same period (FY22), as per TheKredible. It is yet to report FY23 numbers.

It competes with Starbucks and specialized coffee brands such as Blue Tokai, Sabko Coffee, Rage Coffee, Slay Coffee, Sleepy Owl, and  Seven Beans Co., among others.