Chennai-headquartered beverage brand Chai Waale, has secured another round of funding worth ₹5 crore from existing and new investors. Actor Nayanthara and director Vignesh Shivan have also invested in this round.
Angel investors Sunil Sethia; Sunil Kumar Singhvi, Manish Mardia and UNI-M Network, a Mumbai-based angel network are among the others. Additionally, private organisations such as Unlisted Kart LLP (an online trading platform of unlisted shares) from Bangalore and Conscience Multi Family office, based out of Chennai, are playing a major role in this round of funding.
“80% of the current funding will be utilised in physical store expansion. We aim to have 35 fully functioning stores by next year. The rest of the funds will be earmarked for marketing, expansion of back-end systems & managerial team,” said Vidur Maheswari, founder, Chai Waale.
The home-grown QSR (quick service restaurant) brand is planning to set up shop in places with high footfalls including Metro stations and malls. “During the unlock phases, we increased our digital marketing and e-commerce budgets to acquire a new customer base online apart from our existing loyal customer base.”added Mr. Maheswari. “We are bullish about our growth trajectory in the upcoming year, given the robust set of investors,” he said.
Started in 2018, Chai Waale currently has 20 outlets in places including Anna Nagar, Kilpauk, Alwarpet, and Adyar.