Ratan Tata, who stepped down as the chairman of the $100 billion Tata Group in 2012, is taking a stake in an online startup that sells premium teas, the latest example of the Indian businessman becoming an active venture capitalist in his retirement.
Advertisement
The company plans to use the funding raised towards expansion to new markets and to fuel growth in existing markets.
Teabox has delivered 60,000 kg of tea, equal to over 30 million cups of tea, to customers in 93 countries, according to the newspaper. Teabox has a backing from investors such as JAFCO Asia, Accel Partners, Keystone Group LP and Dragoneer Investment Group.
“Tata’s direct guidance and experience in the tea industry, will surely help us grow Teabox to be the first global premium tea brand from India”, said Dugar.
This is the third funding round for Teabox, which was founded in 2012 by Kaushal Dugar.
The business tycoon has invested in over 20 companies in the past 12 months.
The market for Tea Box is far reaching with orders coming from Russia, UK, Korea and the US.
While money for investment itself is hard to come, it is even more difficult to get Tata’s endorsement, pointed out Dugar, adding that Tata’s advice to Dugar was to ‘make TeaBox a global brand’. The company had earlier raised $1 million seed round from Accel Partners and Horizen Ventures in early 2014. The company’s approach marks a clear departure from the norms of the tea industry. By applying innovations in design, supply chain and technology, we are able to offer a significantly better experience to customers across the world.
Keeping this in mind, he created Teabox to vertically integrate tea brands, provide good tea brands to Indians as 90% of good teas produced in India are exported, and bring value back to his roots in Siliguri by providing employment to thousands of tea workers.
India has been a prominent exporter of tea for the past 200 years.
Advertisement
“I hope to give a Silicon Valley makeover to our tradition-bound tea industry”.
