tea cafe chain Chaayos On Thursday it said it has raised $53 million (about Rs 414 crore) for tech-enhancement, hiring and store expansion as it plans to add 100 stores by the end of this year. The company said the funding round was led by Alpha Wave Ventures With participation from all existing investors – Elevation Capital, Tiger Global And think investing.

“The new funds will be used for technology enhancement, hiring and store expansion,” it said in a statement.

Founded in 2012 by Nitin Saluja and Raghav Verma, Chaayos operates 190 stores across 6 cities and plans to add another 100 by the end of 2022.

At Chaayos, guests can personalize their fresh cup of ‘tea’ in 80,000 combinations and Chaayos IoT-enabled tea bots called Chai Monks make this possible.

It said the company’s facial recognition software enables faster checkout and payments.

“The latest capital raise will help us deepen our technology investments to further enhance our guest experience and build an all-encompassing brand that is an integral part of Indian society for decades to come.

Saluja said, “As always, we will continue to grow our cafe footprint and go deeper into the cities where we are present and explore new markets. We are constantly working to deliver the scale we aspire to be. Looking for talent.”

Deepak Gaur, Partner, Elevation Capital, said, “A unique combination of innovations in food and beverage products, strong leverage of technology solutions and a passion for customer satisfaction have established Chaayos as a clear leader in its field.”

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