India's Teabox closes $7m Series B

Additional participants include DBS Bank, which contributed an unspecified venture debt component, and unnamed existing investors. The capital will be used to support growth in key markets while expanding back-end infrastructure such as cold chain processing centers.

"We are excited about backing the challenger in a large category with a demanding customer,” Harshavardhan Bothra, a principal at RB, said in a statement. “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."

Founded as Darjeeling Tea Express in 2012, Teabox specializes in rapid vacuum-packing of specialty teas from growers across India and delivering to domestic and international customers in less than 24 hours. The company claims to have shipped more than 40 million cups to 112 countries, with key markets including the US, Russia and India. It also markets a range of teaware and uniquely designed gifts.

Teabox bills itself as possibly the only global tea brand with an intensive digital presence and a unique disruptor in an industry which has seen little modernization in 200 years. Technical innovations include the development of pyramid-shaped teabags called TeaPacs which are said to be the first products of their kind to use a freshness-sealing method known as natural nitrogen flush.

Singapore-based Jafco Asia led a $6 million Series A investment in 2015 with participation from Accel Partners, The Keystone Group and Dragoneer Investment Group. This was preceded by a $1 million seed round from Accel and Horizen Ventures in 2014.

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Consumer
• Early-stage
• India
• TMT
• e-commerce
• Agriculture