BANGALORE, India – Bangalore-based Hatti Kaapi, “India’s fastest growing coffee brand”, has announced INR100 million (US$1.36 million) in a ‘Pre A series’ round funding today led by BlueWolf Capital, Investribe, Kochi Holdings and CreedCap Asia. The capital raised will be primarily used to expand the brand’s retail and cloud footprint to 200+ stores from the existing 115 outlets.
The fund will also be used to scale up its ready-to-use product portfolio under the ‘Six Seconds’ line of products on both online and offline channels.
This latest infusion of capital accentuates Hatti Kaapi’s strong business model and robust long-term business continuity plan which has helped the brand secure substantial funding even in these challenging times.
Speaking on the funding, U S Mahendar, Chairman and Managing Director, said, “‘F & B’ industry is one of the worst affected sectors because of the ongoing pandemic. Being one of the top performers in our segment also has to bear the brunt of COVID forced shutdowns. Thus, this fresh round of capital infusion through fundraising makes it more special.
It showcases our understanding of the ground realities and the agility to adapt to the changing scenario. The various restrictions on movement, social distancing, and WHF becoming the new regular have impacted our physical stores’ walk-ins. So, we introduced our contactless kiosks, which cater to the requirement of the present day.
During this period, we also launched our new line of ready-to-use products. It includes Six Seconds-ready-to-use Filter Coffee Decoction for brewing filter coffee instantly, immunity booster drinks like Kashaya (spices mix) and Golden Latte (Turmeric mix) and Ooru (coffee powder brand for the mass market ).
“To scale up our ongoing efforts to expand our presence across geography and product repertoire, we have been in talks with potential investors since early Nov 2020. Though the initial meeting was quite encouraging, we had to pause due to the second lockdown but once we resume the conversations in June 2021 with a group of global and Indian family offices, who were also our patrons, things started to fall in place and we received funding in our Pre-Series A round. It is a phenomenal achievement keeping in mind that we are still recovering from the near-catastrophic situation.” Says Narayanan, CFO, Hatti Kaapi.
Commenting on the funding, Sekhar from Investribe said, “In the course of this decade, authentic & regional brands will need to offer multi-products via an omnichannel strategy to be able to own every stage of the customer experience. As early backers in 2017, we have seen the company grow its stores by 14x and believe this is the right team to scale deeper into tier-2 and 3 India. We have also seen them master product standardization due to adoption of modern packaging and food technology.”
Despite the various challenges, the homegrown brand has successfully stuck to its ground and has grown exponentially over the last decade. Formed in Bangalore in 2009 by Mahendar and Gowda, the company has slowly evolved as one of India’s fastest-growing authentic coffee chains, with an enviable portfolio of multi-format cafes and coffee decoction and powder in the FMCG segment. Currently, the brand is present across nine cities with 115 outlets.
Hatti Kaapi has also won numerous awards and recognitions for its humane HR policies to employ specially-abled individuals and senior citizens as they account for 10 per cent of its 400 plus workforce
