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Beverage startup Chai Waale announced that it has secured financing worth Rs 5 crore from marquee angel investors. Existing investors along with new investors also participated in the funding round.
The company said that the funding will promote physical and strategic expansion of Chai Waale throughout the city.
Chai Waale’s angel investors include Sunil Sethia, Sunil Kumar Singhvi, Manish Mardia, UNI-M Network, a Mumbai-based angel network and celebrities like Nayanthara and Vignesh Shivan.
“80% of the current funding will be utilised in physical store expansion. We aim to have 35 fully functioning stores by the next year. The rest of the funds will be earmarked for marketing, expansion of back-end systems, and managerial team,” said Vidur Maheswari, founder, Chai Waale.
Chai Waale is planning to set up shops in places such as metro stations and malls and is looking to add other items such as soups, momos, and an expanded range of sandwiches to its menu. Additionally, new flavours of ice tea, desserts, and some quick items are in the pipeline too, the company said in a statement.
“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,” said Maheswari.
Additionally, private organisations such as Bengaluru’s Unlisted Kart LLP (an online trading platform of unlisted shares) and Chennai-based Conscience Multi Family Office are among the other investors who have played a role in this round of funding, the company said.