Teabox Announces $7 Million in New Funding
SILIGURI, India — The world’s freshest tea brand, Teabox, today announced that it has closed Series B funding from Singapore-based investment firm RB Investments, with participation from existing investors. DBS Bank Ltd (“DBS”), Southeast Asia’s largest banking and financial services company, will also be participating in this round through venture debt. The new financing will primarily help Teabox expand its back end infrastructure including cold chain processing centres and support growth in key markets.
The five-year-old consumer tea brand has gained worldwide popularity, especially in the United States, India and Russia, selling over 40 million cups of premium Indian teas to consumers across more than 112 countries. Teabox has built an end-to-end supply chain all the way directly from the growers to the cup. This has been made possible by establishing a strong procurement team with a cumulative experience of 100+ years, building a direct relationship with almost 150+ tea plantations across the length and breadth of the country and building state-of-the-art infrastructure such as cold chain processing centres to ensure the freshness of the teas remain intact. Considered a disruptive brand in the 200-year-old tea industry, Teabox has launched many industry-first defining innovations such as the world’s first natural nitrogen flush TeaPacs™ (patent pending) which is the next generation teabag.
Harshavardhan Bothra, from RB Investments, said, “We are excited about backing the challenger in a large category with a demanding customer. We feel that Teabox’s dynamic team and its innovative supply chain of tea from plantations to cup will enable them to provide the freshest tea to consumers worldwide and redefine the category.”
Confirming the investment, Kausshal Dugarr, Founder-CEO, said, “Tea has been around for hundreds of years, which means that the industry is flooded with big players. With tough competition in the market, we still set out to deliver, 5 years ago, what we believed would add a certain value to tea consumers across the globe. And that was to make fresh teas accessible to all and to enhance their overall tea experience. Looking back, Teabox has done justice to that.”
He further added, “We are perhaps the only global tea brand to have an extremely strong digital presence that has fuelled our growth so far. And that only helps us further our growth when we go multi-channel to create a 360-degree experience for the customer through offline formats. We don’t want to miss out on this huge potential and this investment is going to help us push the levers in this direction. This investment only reaffirms the incredible future the brand has. We are looking forward to our journey with RB Investments. They come with a strong belief and expertise in scaling consumer brands which, I am sure, will help us reach greater heights.”
o3 Capital acted as an advisor to the deal.
About Teabox
Founded in 2012, Teabox is a vertically integrated premium tea brand that delivers delicious teas to the tea-curious. With its sourcing centres located at the tea growing regions, Teabox procures its teas directly from the growers, does extensive value addition and ships them to customers all over the world. By evading the traditional distribution chain, Teabox is able to reduce the time-to-market from 4-6 months to under a week. This ensures only the freshest teas reach the consumers. Teabox brings the finest teas to the table from Darjeeling, Assam, Nilgiris and Nepal. It has an in-house product development team that creates master blends and well-researched new products. Teabox offers a wide range of 250+ for the consumer to choose from, a fine selection of teaware and uniquely designed gifts for individuals and corporates alike and sells through multiple channels in 112+ countries. Teabox also has subscription options for ardent tea enthusiasts. For more information, visit http://www.teabox.com/
About RB Investments
RB Investments is a pan-Asia venture capital firm based out of Singapore that specializes in seed and growth-stage rounds. It is managed by Singapore-based entrepreneur Rajesh Bothra and has investments in Consumer Internet in India include Swiggy, FabHotels, Bluestone, Travel Triangle, Faaso’s, Beer Café, Tapzo, Pretty Secrets, etc.
About o3 Capital Pvt Ltd
o3 Capital Global Advisory Private Limited (“o3 Capital”) is a global investment banking firm that provides independent advice on mergers and acquisitions and capital raising, as well as asset management services to corporations, partnerships, institutions and individuals. O3 Capital has closed more than 120 transactions across products and service domains and specialize in working with high growth consumer focused businesses.
