Reinventing tea from Indore

Shashank Sharma laid the foundation of The Tea Factory in 2012 with the first outlet in Indore being inaugurated a year later. In a span of a decade, the company now boasts 180 outlets with expansion to Canada, the UK, and UAE, and more.

Sunday May 22, 2022 , 3 min Read

Hello Readers,

Indians can always find a reason to drink tea. After all, the beverage powers the entire country. But over the years, there has been a noticeable shift in the tea-drinking culture—from small shops to big cafes.

Jumping on the growing trend, 22-year-old entrepreneur Shashank Sharma decided to open a tea café.

"After completing my graduation, I was thinking of a business idea to start with and one day, while I was discussing my plans with my friends at a corner chai tapri, and we were talking of Cafe Coffee Day's success, I realised, why can’t I open a tea cafe?” Shashank tells in an interaction with SMBStory.

In 2012, he founded The Tea Factory with its first outlet in Indore. It now operates through 180 outlets and has a global presence across UAE, Canada, the UK, Nepal, and Bangladesh.

Read the full story here.

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When Pallavi Gupta was diagnosed with autoimmune disorder lupus, she went on a food regimen that was inspired by Ayurveda and clean eating.

Doubling down on healthy eating, Pallavi launched Nutty Yogi, a collection of the recipes and diet plans she had discovered. Read more.

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D2C health and wellness brand

Former Nykaa CFO Sachin Parikh, former Amazon and Unilever executive Neehar Modi, and Anvi Shah believed that D2C (direct-to-consumer) health and wellness is on the cusp of digital disruption.

The trio started Pratech Brands, a content-led digital-first retailer with a focus on two categories, home and health. Read more.

News & Updates

One 97 Communications Ltd, Paytm's parent company, said its net loss for the fourth quarter widened by 71.6 percent to Rs 763 crore as expenses ate into the fintech company's solid topline growth.

The Board of One 97 Communications Ltd, Paytm's parent company, approved the reappointment of Vijay Shekhar Sharma as Managing Director and CEO for a tenure of five years. The company also said Madhur Deora has also been appointed as an Whole-time Director and CFO.

Seclore, data-centric security platform provider, said that it has raised $27 million in Series C funding round led by Oquirrh Ventures and Origami Capital. As part of this transaction, VenturEast has fully exited its stake with 17.5X return on its seed round.