When you think of coffee, do you think of it to be the most perfect coffee brewed for you, served in a beer bottle?
Before you proceed to think this is impossible, meet the best of both worlds in one, i.e., beer and coffee, ft. Bhupinder Madaan, the founder of Theka coffee.
A little backstory
Bhupinder was born with a mind of an entrepreneur. He always believed in finding the gaps in the market and using them to make profits. He kept juggling between jobs to make profits until he decided to not work under someone and become his own boss.
One of the biggest inspirations for Theka is the momo stalls he worked in Ahmedabad, soon after which he decided to launch Theka coffee in 2017.
He was also a fan of the bigger coffee names available in the market, but his unaffordability, like most middle-class people, served as the USP for Theka.
Theka started serving 100% freshly brewed Arabica coffee served in a beer bottle, priced for Rs 100. Initially, they roasted, brewed, and served three variants of coffee – Palangtod or the strong and dark roasted coffee, Next level or the medium-roasted coffee, and finally, Coffee ki Jawani or the light-roasted coffee.
Besides these basic coffees, Theka now has nine other flavored coffees: Pataka Popcorn, Desi Santra, Minto Rani, Nut-Khatt, Chocolatey Patola, Berry Pia, Angrezi Tharra, Kala Gora, and Chota Bomb. The brand’s USP lies in selling “freshly brewed premium coffee at an affordable price”.
Despite the losses incurred by the business in the wake of the pandemic, the one thing which kept Bhupinder going was his determination.
After the first wave of the pandemic subsided he bought a cart and parked it in Sindhubhavan Marg, the origin of Theka, to restart the business. His light of hope was the sale of about seven bottles of coffee on day 1. After 3 months the numbers substantially rose. Bhupinder placed four carts in four different locations in Ahmedabad to further grow his coffee chain.
The Accolades
Fast forward to January 2022, Bhupinder got shortlisted to pitch Theka on the Indian television show Shark Tank. While he did not manage to get the investment, he gained much more from the fame.
Today, Theka records an average sales worth Rs 15,000 from every outlet, every day. Furthermore, the coffee start-up recently raised Rs 2.5 crore in a round led by a Dubai-based VC firm Zenith Multi Trading.
More interestingly, ever since the episode of Shark Tank was aired, Bhupinder has been receiving collaboration opportunities with other companies as well. Recently, Microsoft asked Theka to operate a cart from the company’s office campus in Bengaluru.
Reliance approached him with a business tie-up. The entrepreneur has decided to go ahead with the latter and going ahead, Theka will be launching and operating its carts inside 10 Reliance retail stores in Mumbai.
Speaking of plans, Bhupinder says he wants to take Theka pan-India. By next month, the entrepreneur has plans to launch Theka carts across Kolkata, Pune, Gurugram, Surat, and Chhattisgarh, among other Indian cities.
And for now, Theka will brew its coffee for all the Chennaites. Theka Coffee will be opening its ventures on three different locations with the first launch at KNK (Khadar Nawaz Khan Road), Chennai on September 4th 2022. This opening made mark its 25th outlet in the country.
