The British drink more than 60 billion cups of tea every year, and it is the second most-consumed drink in the world, after water. Yet the industry has seen little innovation in how the humble tea leaf makes it from the plant to the cup, sometimes many thousands of miles away. Kaushal Dugar, is changing all that.

"The process of getting it to the customer from the tea estate has not changed in nearly 200 years, going back to the days of the British,” says Dugar, who grew up in Darjeeling, a region known for producing India's champagne of teas. After a corporate career in Singapore, he returned to his roots to help modernise an antiquated industry, steeped in colonial history and its archaic methods.

Teabox, based in the West Bengal city of Siliguri, with a satellite office in Bangalore, fuses tea and tech. The sleek, modern, whitewashed walls of its Siliguri headquarters are more Silicon Valley, than colonial British. In this newly remodelled space, opened in 2016, Dugar and his 95 employees are putting the $7 million (£5.4 million) raised from investors such as Accel Partners, Ratan Tata, and Texan billionaire Robert Bass to work.

Raised in Darjeeling, it’s little wonder that Kaushal Dugar lives and breathes tea. With his family in the tea business (his father used to supply tea plantations with mechanical equipment and his brother runs a tea export business in Dubai), it was inevitable that Dugar too would find his way into the trade. He, however, took a circuitous route, via a stint as a strategy consultant at KPMG in Singapore. It evidently stood him in good stead because he launched Teabox, an online direct-to-consumer tea brand.

“Coming from a family that has been in the industry, I had great exposure to some very good teas. But in all the time I spent outside India, I never got the same kind of tea. I realized that by the time the tea reached the end consumer, there was complete deterioration in its quality,” says Dugar.

One of the investors and a devout tea drinker, Robert Bass of Keystone Group LP first discovered Teabox as a tea drinker and loved the product so much that he went on to participate in the round of investment. Kaushal Dugar, Founder and CEO, Teabox speaks on the flavour palate of over 300 teas offered through innovation and technology, ready to disrupt the 200 year old tea industry.

"India grew some of the best teas but the industry was dependent on foreign brands to sell their product. I wanted to crack that and create an indigenous brand and take it to the world," says Sarda, 25, who started Vahdam Teas in April 2015. He delivers garden-fresh teas to over 10,000 customers in 76 countries, with the US being the top market. India contributes close to 10% of the total business. While giants such as Tata and Hindustan Unilever sell tea to the majority, startups are trying to create a market, both in India and abroad, for home-grown brands from estates in Darjeeling, Assam and the Nilgiris. These are mostly loose leaf teas, preferred by connoisseurs, and are a premium segment compared to the CTC (crush, tear, curl) tea that a majority of Indian tea drinkers prefer. What sets his 100% online business apart, says Sarda, is the guarantee of delivery in four days. "If you order tea today, it's most likely what we send you was harvested less than a week ago," says Sarda. "By eliminating middlemen, we are not only able to make available garden fresh high quality teas at lower prices, but are also able to retain all earnings in the region where these teas are grown." Vahdam Teas has raised Rs 4.4 crore ($650,000) from early-stage investment firm Fireside Ventures' Kanwaljit Singh, Mumbai Angels and Singapore Angel Network. Serial entrepreneur K Ganesh says the opportunity to create Indian brands is huge and the space is wide open. "These are regularly consumed products and create a brand loyalty that will stay for years," says Ganesh, who has invested in food-delivery startup Freshmenu through his firm GrowthStory and made a personal angel investment in beverage startup DropKaffe. "There is a dearth of Indian brands in the food and beverage segment." He's quick to point out that these are not food-tech startups, but startups enabled by technology. "Ultimately, technology will not help them serve good food and beverages," he says. Nitin Saluja, co-founder of Delhi-based Chaayos, says technology is the backbone of the company but they can't be labelled food-tech. "We look at serving the customer and how we can make them give us repeat orders," he says. Saluja explains that technology helps them personalise offerings, reduce wastage and predict demand cycles. "Our core business is chai." More than 80% of its customers are walk-ins and the rest order online. Chaayos, he says, it is making operational profits and is not looking to raise further funding. The company, which was founded in 2012 and has 33 outlets, is expanding its retail network in Mumbai. It raised $5 million from New York-based hedge fund Tiger Global, has seen sales triple in the last four years. What's interesting about this segment is that most of the startups seem quite cautious, unlike their counterparts in other sectors. Most seem to restrict themselves to a few cities and are focussing on growing and establishing a strong identity and footprint in every city they enter. Chai Point, which is also operationally profitable, has about 100 stores in eight cities and offers varieties of hot and cold chai with snacks. "We have a same store growth of 20% and our total growth is 100%,"says Amuleek Singh, co-founder, Chai Point, which also has an app to take delivery orders. About 60% of the company's revenue comes from retail stores, 30% from corporate service and 10% from the delivery business. Singh, who graduated from Harvard Business School, set up Chai Point in 2010 sensing potential in the huge number of tea drinkers in the country. The company has launched BoxC, an internet-enabled tea dispensing machine that uses natural tea leaves. "The end-consumer gets access to our brand of tea in all ways possible," says Singh. Recently, the startup raised $ 10 million from Eight Roads Ventures, DSG Partners and existing partner Saama Capital. For Suresh Radhakrishnan of Chai King, the business of tea is a numbers game. He's adopted a hybrid model with retail outlets, corporate clients and mobile kiosks. "With corporates, we see high volumes but thin margins. With retail, it is vice versa. This business is different because it cannot be driven by technology. Customer acquisition still involves traditional methods," he says. Ratan Tata-backed Teabox, which sells branded premium tea and accessories to the growing population of connoisseurs, uses customised software to map customers' tastes and habits. "Based on the answers to a set of questions, we send a sample of three teas to the customer, and then ship the one he or she chooses," says Kaushal Dugar, founder, Teabox. The startup has shipped close to 40 million cups of tea to 110 countries. Investor and entrepreneur Ganesh says beverage startups aren't the usual kind that attract venture capitalists. "They won't give you hockey stick growth because there is city sensitivity," he says, explaining that the coffee consumed in Karnataka is different from the way Tamil Nadu drinks it, just as Kochi enjoys its tea differently from New Delhi. "You need a strategy for each city and cannot go to 10 cities with a $100 million cheque.".

Teas Teabox sells teas that are handpicked from gardens of Darjeeling to estates of Assam. The website sells leaves from cities and states across India and some from Nepal as well. We love the Wah Classic Spring black tea, a fresh spring tea from the Kangra valley and North East India’s Gold Summer black tea, which is a smooth and strong tea that pairs impeccably with a rich breakfast spread. They also do a range of limited edition packs during festive season. Teabox.com Spices It’s no secret that you can’t make good Indian food without good Indian spices. From kebab chini, black stone flower or kalpasi, mace to peeli sarson, traditional and hyper regional spices that are difficult to procure in urban grocery stores, can be found on this website. Spice Market also sells vegetable, flower and tree seeds and offers free shipping on bulk orders. Thespicemarket.in.

The tea industry is steeped in tradition; literally, the ways of doing things have not changed much in the last 150 years. Most of the decision makers don't believe that tea is a product that can be sold online.

”And just when you thought you had seen it all, the coffee trend that had you bouncing off the walls all summer has now found its way into the tea world, too. But this time, you can forget the fidgeting, because nitro tea makes for a much calmer caffeine high than its coffee counterpart. Alfred Tea Room in L.A. is experimenting with nitro tea, as is Chicago-based The Cafe at LeFlour. .

Mindset and location were the major challenges which we faced apart from other startup challenges such as lack of cash, being a single founder, etc. The tea industry is steeped in tradition; literally, the ways of doing things have not changed much in the last 150 years. Most of the decision makers don't believe that tea is a product that can be sold online. Getting producers to even give us access to some of the best teas was a challenge in the initial days. The second aspect was the location - starting up in Siliguri which is best known for being 15 kms away from Naxalbari (the birthplace of Naxalism in India which is deemed the biggest security threat by the Indian government). And in a place like Siliguri, there is hardly any talent and a crippling infrastructure. In spite of that, we were able to run a global eCommerce company and went on to raise successful funds from major venture capitalists (the first in the Indian tea industry). The initial investment was made by me. Later, Teabox received seed funding by Accel Partners and Horizen Ventures (Singapore-based early stage fund) participating in this investment round of $1million. Prashant Prakash, from Accel joined the board as an advisor. The company later raised $6 million in Series A round of funding led by JAFCO Asia, with participation from Accel Partners, Keystone Group LP and Dragoneer Investment Group. Robert M. Bass, President of Keystone, who is a customer turned investor in Teabox. We also raised an undisclosed funding from Mr. Ratan Tata. In 2016, another customer Mr. Cameron Jones, invested in Teabox. Last year, when we moved into our new office, one of the first things that came up on the wall was a large map of the world. Little pins starting going up on it to mark the countries we were shipping to. And we set ourselves the 100-country milestone. The United States, India, the UK, Russia, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong… the usual suspects were all there. Neighbors Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka were quickly added. The old Soviet countries, known for their love of smoky black teas, were also added. The Middle East too became part of the Teabox network of countries, no surprise given that Dubai is a major center for tea. It became a ritual of sorts – every time we added a new country, we stopped to celebrate by marking it on the map. And sometimes, it was truly deserving of a celebration. Like the time we got an email from Peter, a regular customer from the UK. He was writing to say he’d now moved to Iraq and wanted to order his usual Assam and Darjeeling blacks. Could we ship to Kalar in the Kurdistan province, he asked. There was so much political unrest in Iraq and it looked like a fairly complicated undertaking. First, we said we’d leave nothing to chance and got the requisite government clearances and paperwork before shipping the order. Peter had probably not expected his tea to arrive – or arrive quickly and without hassle – and when it did, he was thrilled. And so were we. Some brought a lesson in Geography. Like Kiribati. The pin went up on a dot in the middle of the Pacific. How would we ship to Kiribati, we wondered. Fedex initially refused to take one small package all the way from India to Kiribati but we managed to convince them otherwise. The challenge is not merely in shipping to a far-flung country, but in getting it done in the shortest possible time. Quite like Santa and his logistical nightmare of taking a toy to kids all over the world in one night, if you ask me. The Teabox brand promises the world’s freshest tea. We get our teas from gardens within 72 hours of production, often sooner. So the logistics of maintaining this freshness is critical for us. Shipping to Russia by Airmail takes 25-30 days. Today, our teas reach Moscow and St Petersburg in six. At the heart of this logistical efficiency is a nimble and proactive team that is regularly working with shipping partners and customs departments to remove roadblocks at every step. So, when Spain and Italy began returning tea and coffee because they were conduits for drugs, we worked on getting our clearances in order. When orders come from small island countries like Malta, Moldova, or Micronesia we attach a self-use declaration form so that our customers are spared of extra duty fees. And so, we’ve learnt to make this experience pain free for the customer, no matter where in the world they live. The pins on the map have been fast adding up. Europe is looking very crowded with a pin on nearly every country there, both the western and eastern sides. Asia too has a mass of pins. South America was a pleasant addition and we’ve shipped to Columbia (where you have to hire a broker to collect your parcel from Customs), Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Peru there. Africa too has a few pins, as do a handful of islands in the Indian Ocean. Recently, we hit our first milestone – 100 countries. As it turns out, we’d been too busy to count, but at the end of last year, when we decided to stop and check, there were 109 pins on the map! There seems to be a renewed interest in the tea category. But having said that, most of the new tea brands seem to be just putting a new spin on the last mile delivery. When we started up, we decided to take the difficult road of turning things on its head – by setting up our presence at the source, by creating a genuine set of benefits for our consumers, by choosing to use technology to reach more consumers as opposed to a traditional brick and mortar set up. This meant owning and operating the entire value chain ground-up, starting from farm to cup. This approach, we believe gives us the advantage of greater control over consumer experience, and hence will be very beneficial in the long run. On a tangible level, we at Teabox map our success by the pace of our growth, which we have achieved. However, I think, Teabox will be truly successful after it would have established itself as the only premium brand of tea from India that is recognized globally. .

While Seattle-based Teavana enters India through the Starbucks stores and hopes to double its tea sales, Indian tea start-ups are wary of tasting success in the domestic market anytime soon. “Today, almost 85 per cent of our revenues come from the overseas market and we do not see this ratio changing in the foreseeable future. Despite India being a tea-drinking nation, it can never be as big as the US market for loose premium teas. In fact we have even managed to convert some of the Teavana drinkers to Teabox in the US,’’ says Kaushal Dugar, Founder and CEO, Teabox. At the same time, these start-ups are willing to give a leg up to the mass Indian brands that want to dabble in the premium loose tea segment. “We expect mass brands from HUL and Tata Global Beverages to become our strategic partners in future if they wanted to enter the premium tea segment and we have held some discussions with some of them,’’ added Sarda. With Ratan Tata as an investor in Teabox, it may be a matter of time before Teabox gives inputs to Tata Global Beverages to upgrade its portfolio into the super premium end of the loose tea market. “Ratan Tata is already the owner of the largest tea company in India and we would be keen to have some of the corporates approach us as we make quality single estate tea blends and are even more premium than Teavana in the US,’’ added Dugar. .

Dugar said they have also delivered tea to a country like Kiribati. Pronounced Kiribas, it is an independent republic within the Commonwealth of Nations, located in the central Pacific Ocean, about 4,000km southwest of Hawaii. "We had to search Google for Kiribati after a customer ordered for tea from our company. We then found out how to deliver tea directly to the country and did it successfully. The tea was delivered in 8-9 days," he said. The customer, Shantwanea King, had ordered a subscription box comprising Darjeeling black teas and green teas. The subscription programme empowers tea drinkers to choose the kind of tea they would enjoy. Some of the other teas which were despatched ranged from Earl Grey tea to Siberia, iced tea and blended tea to Peru, Assam black teas to Latvia and Kahwa to a customer in the Isle of Man. Kahwa is a traditional green tea prepared with exotic spices. Earl Grey tea is a tea blend flavoured with oil of bergamot. Dugar said the company was started with a vision that every cup of tea sold would be the freshest cup . "That vision has now become a reality thanks to our customers, who, like us, seized the opportunity to enjoy the world's freshest teas. We look forward to delighting customers all around the globe with more innovation," he said. Teabox reached this feat through word of mouth, and digital and social marketing, the company said in a release issued here, adds PTI. "I am very proud to have added this milestone to our list of achievements. We continue to innovate and recently introduced the world's first natural nitrogen flush tea bag so that every cup is fresh," Dugar added. .

Teabox has always been obsessively focussed on being able to deliver an un-matchable experience to our consumers. In fact, one of the investors, Robert Bass of Keystone Group LP, first discovered Teabox as a tea drinker. He is a devout tea drinker and he loved the product so much that he went on to participate in the first round of investment. Another Teabox customer Cameron Jones, a Singapore-based Angel Investor and Tea Connoisseur was impressed by the freshness of the tea sold by Teabox and went ahead also invested into the company last year. There could not have been a bigger testament to the quality of Teabox’s products. Teabox is disrupting the $40 billion tea industry with its innovations in technology and the supply chain. Rated as one of the hottest start-ups in the food-tech category, it sources teas directly from plantations in Darjeeling, Assam and the Nilgiris and vacuum packs the leaves often within 48 hours of sourcing. By shipping directly from the processing warehouses to customers in over 100 countries within three to five days it ensures every customer has the freshest tea possible. .

One learns new things every day, especially when starting a new business. In the case of Teabox founder Kaushal Dugar, it was being instructed better about the world’s geography. 

The startup ships to over 105 countries globally and sometimes even places that the team hasn’t heard of. "Have you heard of this country called Kiribati? We had to Google it and find out. It’s just this dot in the middle of the Pacific. Apparently due to global warming, the country may not even exist in another 10-15 years," Dugar shared. Then there was the Federated States of Micronesia. "These two have been the most incredible countries that we’ve shipped to," Dugar added.

Then there was the Federated States of Micronesia. "These two have been the most incredible countries that we’ve shipped to," Dugar added. Though India based, the local market remains at number three for the startup. US and Russia occupy the first two positions respectively. .

Spend Less On Capex - Tina Garg, Founder & CEO, Pink Lemonade Most entrepreneurs today spend heavily on Capex; investing in things such as fancy offices at the time of starting out and that is a big no-no. For example, instead of looking for a space in the heart of the city, rent spaces in slightly peripheral areas of the city. Secondly, instead of spending heavily on office furniture and interiors, use something that more plug-n-play -- free desks and chairs, and lighter pieces that you can move around and reposition. Use your design sensibility to make the place look funkier with cost-effective wallarts, installations, or maybe even a bright colored wall. Be A Cautious Spender - Manish Sinha, Founder, Skrilo Spending is easy. Spending on quality growth is not. Ask any start-up and I am confident that the foremost challenge in building a business is the balancing act of nurturing the growth wave and managing the cash burn. The pitfalls are all waiting to trip you over. Keep The Budget Small Initially - Kaushal Dugar, Founder and CEO, Teabox It is very usual for small business owners to waste a lot of their capital, in the starting of their venture. Every new strategy and idea that dwells in the respective market, attracts them and hence wasting of money can happen across. Some of the common issues that float first are - Office space, Marketing, staff, advertising, developing numerous business plans, unnecessary infrastructure and so on. Over the years, every business owner goes through the same and learns through each stage of his growth. Managing Working Capital - Satyam Kumar, CEO and Co-founder, Loantap In my opinion small business owners are not able to factor in efforts of collection (from debtors) and assign a cost to it. This also leads to under-pricing of interest cost (trade interest / discount). Thirdly, managing working capital is crucial. They very often mix personal finance, capital requirement and working capital. This leads to strain on working capital and results into costly purchases or higher delivery. .

He says India figures third on his consumer list because “Our teas require a conversion of palette. Indians, at the end of the day, are chai people. It is only in the last few years that the health factor, and global exposure from travel has pushed Indians to explore other ‘pure’ teas.” He himself drinks chai - milky tea - every morning that he is habituated to, and then a cup of black; but on average he tastes about 20 cups a day at work, and in peak production time, about 200 a day. Having grown up on tea estates because his entire extended family was in the business, Kaushal later studied and worked in Singapore as a corporate finance analyst and strategy consultant at KPMG. But when he wanted to do something different, he found himself returning to what he knew best. “The tea industry in India hasn’t changed much in the last 150 years. There is not a single brand from India that has made it big abroad.” On board their panel are fifth generation tea planters with experience, food technologists from CFTRI, and blending experts. Teabox is one of the few places where you’ll be able to shop by type, region, flavour, collection, flush and season. Teas are sourced from Darjeeling, Assam, Nepal, Nilgiris, Kangra, and the north-eastern states of India. “My family has been in the tea business for 70 years. Their site offers the largest collection of single-estate teas in the world — around 190 — claims Dugar. “On our site we share the name of the estate the tea came from, the date it was plucked, the lot number, certifications, tasting notes, ideal steeping time...” He says estates would rather sell to them than export because they offer a better price and give estates brand visibility. “Some of these estates are over 200 years old and we tell you their stories too.” Nepal is just next to Darjeeling, with the same altitude and weather. It is just that Darjeeling is more famous,” is how he explains why Nepal teas find a prominent place in their collections. “Our consumers are largely tea connoisseurs who’ve been drinking their Assams and Darjeelings for over 40 years, and much like wine connoisseurs, they know what they want,” he says. And for those who don’t, Teabox is now hosting tea appreciation sessions; Bengaluru has seen three such happen. They’ve opened a small retail counter at Cinnamon in Bengaluru. Some of their teas are organic, some are Fairtrade certified as well. These speciality and gourmet teas are now becoming mainstream, he concedes. “We don’t use any artificial flavours. Even the flowers and spices we use in the teas are all natural.” They’ve also been able to identify flavour preferences the world over — lighter fruity and flowery blends work well in Japan, but not in Russia, he points out. Almost 50 per cent of Indians are now hung up on green tea or full-bodied Darjeeling teas. We, predictably, like our tea strong. Of the total tea consumption in the world, almost 90 per cent is in the form of teabags, he says. And this is a region they have innovated in, by creating the TeaPac. “Air is the number one enemy of tea, specially moisture in air. Vacuum sealing teabags would crush the delicate tea leaves so we figured we could nitrogen flush pack it to retain the tea’s freshness.” So each teabag is individually puff-packed like your chips. The teabags themselves are large airy pyramid shaped and made from biodegradable nylon allowing for the leaves room to fully unfurl and give out flavour. Loose teas are priced between Rs. 6,000 a kilo up to Rs. 1.2 lakh. The TeaPacs are sold in boxes of 16 teabags for Rs. 240. Did you know? *All teas come from the same tea plant -- whether it’s black, green, white or oolong tea. The way the leaves are processed is what gives them their character *Most tea plants are referred to as “Chinary” teas because they were initially smuggled into India from China. *Research has ensured that many hybrid varieties have entered the tea space, and these are referred to as “clonal” teas. *The Nilgiris region is famous for its winter teas, Assam for summer teas (summer teas are more astringent), Darjeeling for spring and summer teas (spring teas are more fruity and lighter), and the whole of north-east India offers spring and summer teas. The perfect cuppa... You don’t grab tea. You look forward to it, for a couple of hours at least, says Kaushal Dugar. And here are some tea brewing tips from him -- simple infusion works well for all teas. You can control the temperature and steeping time, so the tea will be of the strength you desire. Step 1: Heat water to desired temperature. Ensure the water isn’t boiling as very high temperatures can easily destroy the delicate notes in the tea. Place the tea leaves in a infuser. Step 2: Pour the hot water over the tea leaves until they are submerged. Step 3: Let it steep for the recommended time. Take care not to over-steep. Step 4: Remove the tea leaves. Pour into a cup and enjoy. You can at this point sweeten your tea with sugar, cream or honey. Or add a dash of lemon juice or mint for that extra flavour. “Try it plain once; you'll be surprised how many layers are there to a cup of tea,” adds Dugar. .

Sharing the growth of the company, Dugar said, “We are seeing multi-fold growth year-on-year. Since the time we started in 2012, Teabox has shipped over 35 million cups worth of teas to customers across 95 countries in a short span of time. We will be shipping to another three countries in the coming period, and will cross the 100-mark before the end of this year.” In 2014-15, the company has shipped five million cups of tea. In 2015-16, the number of cups have increased to seven million. During the current fiscal, it has shipped about 14 million cups of tea. The company has raised $7.5 million in funding from Ratan Tata, who invested an undisclosed amount this year. Besides,Teabox is backed by Singapore-based JAFCO Asia, Accel Partners, Keystone Group LP and Dragoneer Investment Group. “Looking at the growth of the company and demand for our products, we will continue to raise funds mid next year,” Dugar added. “We source premium loose-leaf teas from over 150 tea estates in Darjeeling, Nepal, Nilgiri, Assam and Kangra regions in India,” he added. About the future plans, he said, “I hope to give a Silicon Valley makeover to our tradition-bound tea industry. I want to introduce newer varieties of teas that are fresh and delicious that people can have anywhere in the world.” .

These startups see most of the demand, around 75%, coming from the US, Russia and the UK. “There was no Indian brand in the global tea market whereas there are 50 niche brands from Sri Lanka. That’s changing,” says Bala Sarda, founder of Vahdam Teas, which has different websites for the Indian market, for the Russian market, and for the rest of the world to address the different tastes in these markets. A 100gm tea leaves box starts at about Rs 350 and can up to more than Rs 12,000. The startups are investing in facilities that help them to create different blends. Teamonk has launched pyramidical tea bags that leave enough space for the dried leaves to expand when immersed in hot water. Teabox last month launched tea bags filled with inert gas nitrogen that preserves the freshness and flavour of the tea leaves. Vahdam has invested in logistics so that the company can ship its products to New York in four days. Teabox, which has raised $9 million in funding from Accel Partners, Jafco Asia and Horizen Ventures, has 100 employees, and says it has seen a three-times growth in volumes in the past one year. The platform has 1.5 lakh registered users, and has an average transaction value of $80. Dugar says that the specialty tea market is 1% of the overall tea business with lot of headroom for growth. Ashok Mittal, MD of Bengaluru-based Teamonk, says even the Indian market has grown big in the past couple of years. “People are getting health conscious. A few lakh customers will be a large enough market. We are also targeting big hotel chains and pushing our products for corporate gifting,” he says. Most of these ventures are operationally profitable. But not everybody can hope to make a success out of tea in international markets. The entrepreneurs that are doing well have significant experience in the space. Dugar's father was a major tea estate machinery supplier and grew up in Siliguri. Mittal worked with Hindustan Unilever's tea division for 30 years. Vahdam's Sarda has tea businesses in Darjeeling and Gangtok (Sikkim). .

In his quest to bring great tea into the everyday life and provide tea lovers across the globe an easy access to the freshest tea, Kaushal, a tea enthusiast and passionate entrepreneur, quit his corporate job at KPMG. Already rated as the hottest start-ups in the food and tech category by New York Times, his teas are plucked, processed and packaged within one week using a cold chain process, ensuring the freshness. Kaushal shares of his journey, “After highschool in Siliguri, I won a scholarship to study Business at the Singapore Management University. After KPMG, I returned to Siliguri (heart of tea growing region) and decided to work for my elder brother who runs a tea export business that exposed me to another side, as the infrastructure to take the teas from gardens to the consumer was dated. I saw an opportunity for change. It was challenging as we were trying to disrupt in an industry which has hardly changed in the last 200 years.” Some of the new flavours include Oolong Tea, Nilgiri White Tea, Kashmiri Kahwa, Organic Green Tea, Mint Jubilee, Morning Dew, Mountain Rose, Earl Grey, Chamomlle Roy, Darjeeling Muscatel, Assam Black Tea, Organic Breakfast, Fresh Assam Masala Chai, Darjeeling Masala Chai and more. .

Why you should choose them: The quality and freshness of their teas will transport you right to the verdant tea gardens in Darjeeling. Employees visit the tea gardens personally to taste and select the teas which are vacuum-packed to retain freshness. The teas are sourced from some of the best gardens in Assam, Nilgiri, Kangra, Sikkim and Nepal. During packaging, they ensure that details of the teas are mentioned comprehensively so that customers are privy to information like location of the tea garden, date of plucking, tasting notes and details of the garden. Quirkiest creations: “For Diwali this year, we created a hamper of the most exquisite flavours of tea like oolong, vanilla pistachio and other balmy spices. These sold like hot cakes because Diwali is a time of togetherness and a good cup of tea only adds to the celebratory spirit. Also, keep an eye out for our ’12 days of Christmas’ box which comes in special box with little Christmas trees printed on the cover and a glorious smorgasbord of flavours like coco berry, mint chip and chocolate marmalade among others.” .

“Coming from a tea family and spending much of my childhood in tea estates, I grew up drinking some of the world’s best teas – so I know how fresh tea is meant to taste,” says Kaushal Dugar, founder and CEO of Teabox. Kaushal’s family has been in the tea business for over 80 years. He started Teabox four years ago when he saw that the traditional warehousing and distribution of tea were inefficient and ill-suited for preserving the freshness of tea that connoisseurs crave. Its investors include Accel Partners and Indian tycoon Ratan Tata. Texas oil baron Robert Bass and Singapore angel investor Cameron Jones, who love their tea, are among its backers. Teabox introduced vacuum packing and cold storages to source teas from hundreds of growers in India and Nepal and deliver them to 95 countries across the world. Now it hopes to take that to a new level with the TeaPacs innovation. The introduction of leaf tea bags may also give a boost to Teabox’s distribution within the country, where a large section of people cannot afford the price of a regular box of premium leaf tea. Sales of shampoo show that small is beautiful in India. The introduction of single-use sachets, which are cheaper to pack and distribute, turned the industry on its head. Indians today use more sachet-sized shampoos than the regular-sized ones, according to Nielsen. The sachet packaging formula has subsequently been extended to other consumer products from creams to sauces. .

The monsoon arrives in Darjeeling sometime in June, and during the wet months that follow, the bushes produce abundantly. But the leaves are larger and coarser, and the damp weather complicates the withering and fermentation steps, making it difficult to turn out fine teas. Despite their romantic name, the monsoon flush is generally consigned to blenders who will mix it with other, often lesser teas to give them flavor. (The lower-grade monsoon teas frequently end up in less expensive teabags, sometimes without even the Darjeeling name.) Autumn flush — the last of the year — begins by the end of October, once the monsoon has withdrawn from the misty hills, the rains tapered off, and the temperatures begun to drop. The tea bushes reduce their output as they move toward hibernation. It is the shortest of the harvests, and lasts just 30 or so days. "The liquor has a delicate yet sparkling character with a delightful flavor, distinct from both first flush and second flush with a round cup," says B.N. Mudgal, who managed for last few decades Jungpana, one of Darjeeling's most storied gardens. "The infused leaf has a coppery gold brightness with a sweet fresh nose." That color can run to bright amber, even burgundy. A Favorite Of Discerning Palates Less floral and delicate than the opening flushes, autumn flavors tend to be more deeply fruity, with notes of ripe grapes and berries. "This is the kind of tea where you can get body," says Girish Sarda. His family has run Nathmull's of Darjeeling, the hill station's finest tea store, since 1931. Or, as Rishi Saria, of the high-elevation Gopaldhara Tea Estate, says, "a robust cup and solid cup." Robust is relative, and is far from the strong breakfast teas of Assam and Kenya. Even at its boldest, Darjeeling is still generally drunk without milk, sugar or even lemon. "If there is one word I would use to characterize these teas, it would be well-balanced," says Jai Kejriwal, whose family has owned Jungpana since acquiring it from the Nepalese royal Rana family in 1956. "The teas have no sharpness, bite or astringency that typifies first and second flush teas." The rounded flavors and smoothness in the mouth, slightly sweet under notes, and mellowness make it the most readily palatable of all Darjeeling teas for Kolkata auctioneer Anindyo Choudhury, who tastes about a thousand different teas from Darjeeling each week. Autumn is the personal favorite flush of many of India's most discerning tea tasters, including Choudhury and the celebrated tea master and blender Sanjay Kapur, who savors the complexities of the flush's flavor. Elusive Taste Yet the autumn flush rarely makes it beyond India's borders. Among the top North America purveyors of fine teas that sell Darjeeling tea by estate and flush, neither Harney & Sons nor Tea Trekker offer any, while Upton Tea Imports has just a single autumn flush among the 26 Darjeelings it stocks. Even the world's finest tea shop, Mariage Frères of Paris, which carries over 100 different Darjeeling teas, offers just three from the autumn flush. There is significantly less tea from this final harvesting period. With less quantity, only a limited amount makes it to public auction. Gardens generally sell their autumn flush privately to exporters and a few online retailers and tea boutiques. But this is not the sole reason it is nearly impossible to find in shops. Buyers abroad are largely done for the year, and often distracted by the impending Christmas holidays. Most of the top stores do not bother to stock it. That means that customers are rarely even aware of autumn options. In France, which has a long tradition of drinking fine teas, customers at such well-stocked stores as Mariage Frères keenly await the arrival of first and second flush teas, but often have little idea that there will be new Darjeeling offerings arriving late in the year. Certainly they are missing out on the last offering from the tea bushes before they go into hibernation. "The sweetness, smoothness and balanced fruity and floral notes of the cup are in complete harmony," says Kejriwal. "It's almost as if the bush is looking forward to its rest, content after a season-long journey." For those who can get autumn flush — unless you have access to a shop like Mariage Frères, the best place might be a specialist online retailer, such as Teabox — it is the perfect way to ease out the final months of the year and sustain oneself until the new spring teas are ready in March. First flush, at least, is easier to find. .

They provide feedback after each box. And after the first three boxes, the company has developed an understanding of what their customer prefers. “We use technology and algorithms in a smart way to solve the discovery journey,” he says from his Siliguri headquarters. The online storefront sells over 250 varieties of teas — all sourced from different regions of India, several offered in organic varieties. Getting the business off the ground was a challenge, though, for Dugar. Even with his family background in tea, he found tea estate owners difficult to convince. Traditionally, estates sent samples of their teas to customers to taste. Dugar, instead, treated tea like wine, developing nuanced descriptions of each variety, which are available on the company’s online storefront. He then presented the estate owners with an alternative: allow me to take your product to a global marketplace. .

In his quest to bring great tea into the everyday life and provide tea lovers across the globe an easy access to the freshest tea, Kaushal, a tea enthusiast and passionate entrepreneur, quit his corporate job at KPMG. Already rated as the hottest start-ups in the food and tech category by New York Times, his teas are plucked, processed and packaged within one week using a cold chain process, ensuring the freshness. Kaushal shares of his journey, “After highschool in Siliguri, I won a scholarship to study Business at the Singapore Management University. After KPMG, I returned to Siliguri (heart of tea growing region) and decided to work for my elder brother who runs a tea export business that exposed me to another side, as the infrastructure to take the teas from gardens to the consumer was dated. I saw an opportunity for change. It was challenging as we were trying to disrupt in an industry which has hardly changed in the last 200 years.” Some of the new flavours include Oolong Tea, Nilgiri White Tea, Kashmiri Kahwa, Organic Green Tea, Mint Jubilee, Morning Dew, Mountain Rose, Earl Grey, Chamomlle Roy, Darjeeling Muscatel, Assam Black Tea, Organic Breakfast, Fresh Assam Masala Chai, Darjeeling Masala Chai and more. .

Having worked for a tea export company, Dugar understands the nuances of supply chain and reaching the end consumer when it comes to selling tea online. Besides his background in corporate finance since the time he worked for KPMG in Singapore would also come in handy when it comes to funding requirements to take his start-up to the next level. “Today, we are well capitalised but once we decide to go offline, more funds would be required and there would be a desired pay back period,’’ he says. Taking the initiative to approach Ratan Tata for funds was a decision Dugar took on his own. “We just took an appointment with him and flew down to Mumbai and made him realise the potential of our business as we sat across a sofa. He was humble and down to earth and shared the same vision in terms of approaching the business with the kind of high end technology that we have in Tea Box,’’ added Dugar. Funded by Jafco Partners, Horizon Ventures and Accel Partners, Tea Box is already backed by billionaires from these firms who are connoisseurs of tea with Ratan Tata being the latest addition to its list of investors. “Ratan Tata understands the global tea business since he was around when Tetley was bought by his group company and has a penchant for high-end teas,’’ states Dugar. But creating demand for high-end teas may take a while in India since the bulk of its online sales comes from the US with no strong contender in the Indian market so far. As Dugar observes, “More than the rest of the Indian tea start-ups, our main competition will come from Teavana once it comes to India as it also has a thriving online business. Today, the US is our largest market followed by the UK, but India is still a small market"..

Returning back to Siliguri, after completing his higher studies, Dugar decided to work with his elder brother, who runs a tea export business. Working there showed him another side to the business from what he had seen with his father. On seeing the infrastructure that was being used to take the teas from gardens to the consumer and the challenges they faced helped him to carve his own way to cater this industry. "My experiences abroad helped me think like an outsider to the industry. This outsider thinking was important because it enabled me to wriggle free of the constricting assumptions of the industry insider. It also enabled me to import ideas and practices from other industries and cultures and apply them to every aspect of strategy. These skill sets, in combination with my first-hand experience with tea industry (given my family's background), were the driving forces behind setting up TeaBox," said Dugar. Funds Rolling In The Startup has raised an undisclosed round of funding with a TeaBox customer Cameron Jones, a Singapore-based Angel Investor, and Tea Connoisseur. Concurrently, TeaBox has also raised venture debt from DBS Bank Limited ("DBS"). One of the TeaBox's early backers, Robert Bass, was also originally a customer who was impressed by the freshness of the tea sold by TeaBox. Speaking about the journey from becoming an investor from being a customer, Cameron Jones, said, "I invested in TeaBox because I'm a big proponent of what they're doing in the tea space and love the attention to detail they have. TeaBox is well positioned to become the global premium tea brand in the world, and I'm excited to back them in growing their business on a global scale." The company plans to use the capital to expand its presence and fuel growth and innovation in global markets. Unveiling the strategy to lure investor, Dugar opined, "The quality of our products and the attention to detail is what converted two of our customers to become investors." Prior to this investment, Venture was backed by JAFCO Asia, Accel Partners, Keystone Group LP and Dragoneer Investment Group. What's more, Bring New Talent Onboard With the announcement of funding also comes the announcement of strategic hires at TeaBox. Nicole Naumoff brings 20 years of marketing and business leadership experience with global brands to TeaBox. She will lead TeaBox's marketing efforts including the launch of new products and partnerships, with a focus to build the brand in North America. Amit Sharma will lead technology at TeaBox. His strong understanding of usability, scalability, performance and optimization will ensure the TeaBox eCommerce platform is ready for growth. With Nicole's strategic marketing leadership and Amit's technological vision, TeaBox will be poised to take its global tea commerce business to greater heights. "We are thrilled to add leaders of Nicole and Amit's caliber and depth of experience to our team. Their track record of successfully bringing consumer focused products and services to market will help us to scale to our next level of growth," said Dugar. On A High Spirit Within 4 years of its existence, TeaBox has delivered over 35 million cups' worth of tea to customers in 94 countries. "When we started up, we decided to take the difficult road of turning things on its head- by setting up our presence at the source, by creating a genuine set of benefits for our consumers, by choosing to use technology to reach more consumers as opposed to a traditional brick and mortar set up. This meant owning and operating the entire value chain grounds-up, starting from farm to cup. This approach, we believe gives us the advantage of greater control over consumer experience, and hence will be very beneficial in the long run," said Dugar. .

TWith the announcement of funding also comes the announcement of strategic hires at Teabox. Nicole Naumoff brings 20 years of marketing and business leadership experience with global brands to Teabox. She will lead Teabox's marketing efforts including the launch of new products and partnerships, with a focus to build the brand in North America. Amit Sharma will lead technology at Teabox. His strong understanding of usability, scalability, performance and optimisation will ensure the Teabox e¬Commerce platform is ready for growth. With Nicole’s strategic marketing leadership and Amit’s technological vision, Teabox will be poised to take its global tea commerce business to greater heights. T“This capital will give us additional resources to expand quickly and strategically into new markets, innovate rapidly, and deliver on our vision around the world,” said Kaushal Dugar, Founder & CEO, Teabox. "We are thrilled to add leaders of Nicole and Amit’s caliber and depth of experience to our team. Their track record of successfully bringing consumer focused products and services to market will help us to scale to our next level of growth." TFor the tea industry, where the estates still run on ledgers designed in the British colonial era, Teabox is right out of the future. The company’s approach marks a clear departure from the norms of the tea industry. By applying innovations in design, supply chain and technology, customer’s across the globe are easily able to enjoy the freshest tea from the best tea gardens because of Teabox. .

Gardening Mom Moms who enjoy getting their hands dirty should not be given a basic bouquet of flowers. Instead, take advantage of spring gardening sales at home improvement stores and put together a bucket of essentials for a fun twist on a traditional gift basket. For example, organic potting soil can be fetched for as little as $3 from Lowe's, while Home Depot shoppers can find special pricing on annuals, small fruit trees and other spring blooms. Wonder Mom The mom with mile-long to-do lists who still finds time to watch your kids or listen to you vent about work deserves a timeout. Channel your inner child and put together a homemade beauty recipe for a body scrub, face mask or hair treatment made with products from your pantry. Pair this item with a gift certificate from SpaFinder, which you can purchase for 20% off from Costco. For moms who prefer to decompress with a cup of tea, a pretty gift box with four delicious teas from TeaBox will hit the spot (and won't break the bank at just $25!). All-Natural Mom Gifts for the naturalist can range from earth-based products to a pampering session featuring all-natural treatments. Since Mother's Day is a big event for beauty providers, there are plenty of deals featuring discounts and free gifts. For example, Origins is offering the Power Anti-Agers Gift Set for $65 (valued at over $100), plus three free deluxe samples and a cosmetics bag with $45 purchase. For all-natural pampering sessions, consult Groupon or LivingSocial for daily deals from local spas and salons. Fashion-Forward Mom The mom whose style you emulate should receive something fashionable on Mother's Day. Since she likely has a particular taste, opt for an accessory over an apparel item, unless you know she's been eyeing a specific garment. Fossil is offering free embossing and engraving in-store and online through May 1, enabling shoppers to customize classic watches, clutches and other accessories. Another option is the Village Ways Cashmere Wool Scarf from Ann Taylor, sourced from female artisans in the Himalayas and currently on sale for 50% off. Tech-y Mom The gadget lover will always welcome new tech products designed to make life easier, or at the very least more fun. Gift these moms with an Olliclip 4-in-1 Lens, the iPhone camera add-on that offers fisheye, wide-angle and macro 10x and 15x capabilities to her smartphone's camera. If gadget research leaves you feeling underwhelmed, there's always the go-to gift of a new smartphone or tablet cover. Find your mom's favorite art or customize a cover with photos of her family. Receive 25% off photo gifts from Walgreens, or get a case for yourself too from SkinIt and buy one, get one 50% off. .

It's insanely fresh tea. We're sipping on the Jasmine Jade right now, and the leaves have unfurled and look like sea creatures at the bottom of our thermos (that's a good thing.) Fancy tea is always a great gift, but Teabox also has a subscription service—that's the fun part and the key to this gift. Because as a new personalized box of tea or three arrives every month, mom will think of you and forget that whole thing about the beach house fiasco last summer. It's subliminal messaging, really. Other pros: •She'll get a "kick" out of filling out the questionnaire. •The questionnaire will mean the tea she gets is stuff she'll dig, and not some Christmas-tree flavored mystery tea that no one likes. No one. •The packaging tells you how to brew it, what to mix it with (if anything), how much caffeine is in it, what it's made from, even the palate. Lots of information for tea drinkers from novice to pro. •There are different levels of subscription so she won't be stuck with a gigantic pyramid of tea that she'll eventually pawn off on you the next time you're over. •Once she opens the teas, they'll last a whole year. Damn. •It's fun to get stuff in the mail. Especially surprises. Oh, your mom is a COFFEE, person? Stumptown, boom. Sign her up for a coffee subscription—roaster's pick is full of surprises. .

Started in 2012, the company has so far shipped over 35 million cups worth of tea to customers in 93 countries around the world and the number increases every day. Kushal observes that there has been transformation in the way people consume tea in last one year. Not everyone likes plain tea. To make it suitable to everyone’s palate, Kushal has also devised 250 tea blends with the help of three experts in Siliguri, where the production unit is located. The blends include flavours like aam panna, strawberry, orange and mint. However, for newbies, he recommends any Autumn Flush teas. “They are more palatable,” he says. Apart from these they supply 150 single-estate teas. To understand which flavours you would like, take a quiz on the website. Based on your answers, which would be a reflection of your taste in food and aromas, Teabox will help you pick one. Teas cost `6,000-7,000 per kg. They also have monthly subscription plans for ones who would like to buy tea from them regularly. One can buy it with the right type of kettle to infuse the tea in the best way, from their website. Other accessories used to store tea and serve them are also available. .

She has plans to sell Japanese cooking ingredients, instant noodles and rice on Kimochbox. To give consumers more freedom, Ms Faye Victoria Sit, 24, co-founder of Hook Coffee, does not tie them down to a fixed subscription. Customers decide the frequency of delivery and are charged only when the coffee is delivered. Prices start at $18 for a 250g bag of coffee. She says Hook has shipped more than 500 bags of coffee and has more than 300 subscribers. One of the earlier entrants into subscription services is The French Cellar, which was launched in 2013. It sells exclusive wines from France selected by sommelier Nicolas Rebut. The French Cellar's chief executive officer Vincent Morello, 32, says: "We are seeing a steady increase in business. We have already shipped more than 10,000 boxes containing two bottles each and launched in Shanghai at the end of last year. "As long as a subscription service is unique and reasonably priced and has strong re-order potential, then the business has a chance." And things are set to get sweeter. Looking to launch a surprise box concept next month is Mr Malvin Chiam, 24, co-founder of Unicandy, a new start-up that sells candy from all over the world. The boxes are priced at $17.90, $27.90 and $37.90 for a month's worth of sweets. Indeed, consumers are enjoying such niche subscription services. Teacher Low Kian Seh, 37, who signed up for fortnightly delivery of drip bags from Hook Coffee, says: "I first ordered to sample the coffee and I liked it. Ten bags cost $18 and I think it is worth it." Marketing manager Allan Ma, 23, who subscribes to Kimochbox, says: "I am very happy to have more than 10 types of snacks to try without worrying about wasting food. "It's also a nice surprise every first week of the month because I never know what's going to be in the box." KIMOCHBOX What: Those who love Japanese snacks can get monthly samples of 10 to 12 items from Kimochbox. Instead of buying whole bags of chocolates and sweets, subscribers get sample portions of the items. The company collaborates with Japanese speciality store Yamakawa Super, which has outlets at Suntec City and The Central in Clarke Quay. Yamakawa Super has recently launched its online delivery platform so customers who like the snacks in the boxes can buy the full-sized versions there. Special boxes can be customised for celebrations or corporate events. Plans to sell other Japanese products such as sauces and instant noodles are in the pipeline. Price: From $13 a box (one-year subscription) to $15 (pay every month) Info: www.kimochbox.com HOOK COFFEE What: Get your fix of artisanal coffee with Hook Coffee. Unlike other subscription services, which have fixed weekly, monthly or yearly deliveries, you can manage the frequency of deliveries using Hook's Coffee Calculator during the online check-out. Answer some quick questions to determine the flavours you like in your coffee and your preferred brewing style and Hook will also recommend a suitable coffee. The company offers beans from India, El Salvador and Colombia. A house blend, made with beans from Brazil and Mexico, is also available. You can buy whole beans or get them ground on demand and calibrated to work with various brew methods such as an espresso machine and French press. Do not own any equipment? Opt for its drip bags instead. The beans are shipped within the week of roasting and the dates are indicated on the website. Price: $18 (250g bag that makes up to 15 cups of espresso), $18 (pack of 10 drip coffee pouches) Info: www.hookcoffee.com.sg PINT SOCIETY What: Enter couch potato mode with ice cream delivered to your door step. The current flavour is Tiramisu, with coffee-soaked sponge finger biscuits. Previous flavours include Hazelnut Bomb, with hazelnut gelato, crushed hazelnuts, chocolate cake and 74 per cent chocolate-covered cornflakes; and Black & White, which is chocolate gelato (with 80 per cent couverture chocolate) with white chocolate truffles mixed in. Next month's flavour will be released on April 11. Price: From $29 a month (one-year subscription) to $38 (pay every month) Info: www.pintsociety.rocks SAKEMARU What: As the sake scene here continues to grow, seek out more unusual types of sake via Sakemaru. Launched in January, it is run by Mr Taichi Abe, a sake sommelier and distributor of sake in Singapore. He also opened a sake bar in January at Tampopo in Ngee Ann City. Next month's sake selection is the Tokubetsu Junmai Hattan Nishiki Nama Genshu from the Tempoichi brewery in Fukuyamashi, Hiroshima. Price: $50 a month for a bottle of sake, $100 a month for two bottles Info: sakemaru.me/sg/ WHISKY BUTLER What: Instead of paying for a bottle of whisky that may not be to your liking, sign up with Whisky Butler, which delivers four 20ml sample bottles a month. If you like what you taste, you can buy the full bottle from its website. Each month's selection has a theme, such as Scottish whiskies in February and Japanese whiskies this month. Next month's picks come from the Glenfiddich distillery in Scotland, with 18- to 23-year-old whiskies. Price: From $74 a month (one-year subscription) to $88 (pay every month) Info: www.whiskybutler.sg TEABOX What: Do a quick quiz on your tea preferences and the "prediction engine" will pick out teas for you - from black tea to chai. There is also a wide selection of single estate teas. More exotic flavours under its "new arrivals" section include Mango Turmeric Tang and Apple Florentine. The online site also retails the tea in sample packs and sells tea accessories. Price: From $28.48 for a Tea Lover plan (100g of three types of tea) Info: www.teabox.com.

The company has won an undisclosed round of financing from Ratan Tata, chairman emeritus of Tata Sons, the holding company of Tata Group. Mr Dugar noted that this is the first investment in a tea startup by the Indian business magnate and that the amount will be used for marketing, customer acquisition and hiring. Founded in 2012, Teabox had raised at least US$7 million in previous funding from Jafco Asia, Accel Partners, Keystone Group LP and Dragoneer Investment Group. .

Ratan Tata is a respected name in India, where several business tycoons are tarnished with the brush of crony capitalism. After his retirement in late 2012, he has been investing in startups. From China’s Xiaomi to Bangalore’s Tracxn, Tata has made a series of good bets. Are modern Indians thinking why own when we can rent? It’s still too early to say if India is moving towards an asset-light, rental economy. But several startups and investors sure seem to think so. The latest such startup to raise capital is Bangalore’s WhatsOnRent. It’s a marketplace where you can rent everything from washing machines to treadmills and Playstations. Today it announced that it has raised a round of angel funding. Commonfloor co-founder Lalit Mangal, Excubator co-founder Neeraj Gupta, angel investor Sanjay Gupta, and Bangalore-based software company Nixel Technology participated in the round. The startup was founded in September last year by technologists Sulabh Jain, Shreyans Shrimali, and Bharat Goyal. “I am a big believer of a future of accessibility, and WhatsOnRent’s mission to contribute into that got me excited,” said Lalit Mangal, who is mentoring the team. In India, it’s no joy if you have to renovate your house or construct a new one. Sourcing bricks, pipes, and other construction material is tough because there’s no one-stop shop for them. So you end up at the mercy of contractors and builders who will claim their pound of flesh. Young ecommerce marketplace Buildzar solves this problem. You can not only shop for cement to paints and bathroom fittings, it also has a tool you can use to estimate the construction cost, time, and quantity of material you need to buy. The Gurgaon-based startup has raised US$4 million in a pre-series A round of funding from Puneet Dalmia, managing director of Dalmia Bharat Group. The startup claims to clock 750-800 orders on a monthly basis, with steel and cement being the leading categories, VC Circle reports. .

“We’re very excited because it’s a validation of our business from one of the most iconic businessmen of India,”said Teabox founder and chief executive officer Kaushal Dugar. Tata has a history of pioneering business strategy. He was chairman of Tata Group when it cut what was then the biggest takeover in Indian corporate history. In 2000, Tata Tea Ltd acquired the UK’s Tetley Tea, which was the inventor of the teabag and three times its size. Tata said at the time he hoped other Indian firms would follow, and some did. Teabox, which was founded in 2012, raised $6 million from investors that included Texas billionaire Robert M. Bass and Accel Partners in the latest round in 2015. Teabox works with 150 plantations in Darjeeling, Assam and Nepal. Teas go to the firm’s cold storage within 48 hours of production where they are vacuum packed and shipped to customers around the world in about a week, according to Dugar. Traditionally it takes three to six months for the teas to reach consumers. Bloomberg. .

Aside from CCD, other popular coffee joints include domestic firm Barista and global giants Costa Coffee and Starbucks. The latter entered the Indian market in 2012 and has 75 stores to date. The explosive growth of well-known chains is indicative of an increasingly wealthy Indian middle class that is looking to embrace Western trends. New Delhi hopes to top 8 percent economic growth next year and multinationals of all stripes are eyeing the opportunities offered by a newly monied group of consumers. Still, coffee has yet to eat into tea's market share. On an annual per capita basis, Indians drank 15.6 cups of coffee in 2014 and 16.6 cups so far this year, Sanjeev Raikar, research analyst at Euromonitor International, told CNBC. That pales in comparison to 163.7 cups of tea in 2014 and 176.6 cups this year, he said. "Though there has definitely been an increase in the number of cafes and coffee specialist retailers such as CCD, such cafés are frequented by young consumers mainly. So, coffee is definitely gaining popularity, however only amongst a small set of consumers." He doesn't expect coffee to overcome tea as India's most popular drink anytime soon. While the country may be the world's sixth-biggest coffee producer, with production for the 2015-16 year expected to hit a record high, domestic demand isn't fuelling growth. At least three-quarters of output goes to exports, with Italy, Germany and Belgium among the top buyers, according to Reuters. Even with the increase in output, exports siphon large amounts of coffee away from the domestic market so consumption estimates have remained largely unchanged in recent years, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Moreover, the type of coffee being consumed is important. While there is a growing cafe culture, nearly all Indian coffee is consumed at home or in traditional street stalls as instant coffee, said Dhruv Sood, agricultural specialist at the USDA. However, many popular instant coffee brands contain a lower count of naked coffee beans, an international measurement called green bean equivalent (GBE), compared to ground coffee. Over the longer term, Indian coffee consumption will only increase significantly once the use of ground coffee becomes more common since it contains a higher percentage of GBE, Sood explained. News this month that the government allowed 100 percent foreign direct investment (FDI) in several plantation crops, including coffee, from only tea previously, could have an impact on the java market but for now, it's too early to speculate, Raikar said. Going forward, the rise of tea-related businesses could see consumption of the drink explode even further and cap coffee's growth. .

Moreover, the stress is on the utility of the product, that’s the reason it’s no more a photo frame or a box of candle, but something that one can use on daily basis,” says Varun Narula of Gaurav Chauhan Events, which organises Diwali events and corporate gifts.With this diktat in mind, here are five organic and utilitarian gifting options for this Diwali. TEA TREAT This festive season, start a new tradition of celebrating special occasions over cups of tea. Teabox offers 100 per cent hand-picked teas from the finest plantations in Assam, Darjeeling, Nilgiris and Nepal. The gift box, Golden Moments, is a selection of hand-crafted blends in flavours such as rose, marigold, almonds, fruits and spices. The box includes six flavours -Indian Marigold, Sweet Melody, Mint Jubilee, Spice Sparkler, Kesar Delight Chai and Mountain Rose. .

Teabox, a two-year-old e-commerce start-up is opening up the $30 billion tea industry with its innovations in technology and supply chains. They’ve delivered 30 million cups of tea to tea lovers across 90 countries including Micronesia, Chile, Argentina and even Iraq. We chart the trail What’s different? “At Teabox, we visit the tea gardens, taste and select the teas we want to sell. The teas are vacuum packed to retain freshness. We source our teas from some of the best tea gardens in Darjeeling, Assam, the Nilgiri, Kangra, Sikkim and even Nepal. We want our customers to know where we are sourcing the teas from, the date of plucking, tasting notes, garden details, etc. Traditionally, tea moves from a garden to an auction house. Various distributors sample the teas and an auction date is set typically a month after the production. In this interim of a month the tea is stored in poorly conditioned warehouses. Post auction, the exporter ships the tea to his big importer connections through the ships,” he informs. He adds, “The tea reaches the importer in about 1-2 months depending on the distance and custom clearance. At this point, it is three months from the production of that fresh tea back. Post this the importer sells it to wholesalers who in turn might sell it to retailers who would eventually sell it to the end consumer. This process takes another one-two months. Overall, it takes three-six months for the teas to actually reach the end consumer. We are making the search for premium teas easy, accessible and a very pleasant one,” reveals Dugar. New age Recently, the company launched the world’s first ‘Personalised Tea Subscription Service’. This first-of-its-kind program is powered by Teabox’s patent-pending machine-learning technology that personalises and matches every individual’s tastes to a selection of teas. The Teabox subscription programme empowers tea drinkers to choose the kinds of tea they would enjoy. This is done by breaking down tea into 75 different attributes such as aroma, astringency, strength, body, etc., into objective components, which are matched to user preferences, habits and taste characteristics. How it works “Tea estates send over their tea samples, which are then evaluated by our expert tea tasting team. We have also invested in setting up a rigorous, quality-checking environment, which ensures that only the best quality leaves are selected and stored in temperature and humidity controlled facilities. The orders, which ship within 24 hours of order, are packaged in opaque, vacuum packaging protecting them from sunlight and the environment outside during the transit. Regardless of the location around the world, buyers receive their tea packs within just 3-5 business days,” Dugar explains. Around the World Teabox’s primary target markets are the English speaking developed markets (US, UK, Canada & Australia) and CIS region (ex-USSR Countries). They intend to expand into China, Japan and South Korea this quarter. The list of countries they have already shipped to include those that ordinarily do not figure in the list of tea-importing countries, such as, the Micronesian islands, Chile, Argentina and even Iraq. “All the traditionally large tea companies have continued to operate within the constraints of the legacy value chain. Most of the new tea brands too seem to be just putting a new spin on the last mile delivery,” he adds. Match this Talking about competition and challenges Dugar confesses, “You can call the high-end tea salons our competition. We live and thrive in a segment that is rich in opportunity, but it is also very competitive. It becomes essential for us to keep innovating to offer genuine benefits to our consumers. Most people told us that tea couldn’t be sold online. It is a product that people touch, feel, and smell before buying. Changing this mind set was one of the biggest challenges we faced. We believed that while coffee and wine can be sold online, there is enough scope for tea to be sold too.” What’s your favourite Chai? Darjeeling spring flush and summer flush are most in demand, while the teas from Assam and Nilgiri also seem to be catching up soon. The R&D team at Teabox consists of food technologists and blenders. Currently the website lists over fifty blends created in-house. Customers in the US prefer Darjeeling Teas, whereas in Russia, they prefer the Assam or Second Flush Darjeeling teas. Countries like Fiji prefer Oolong and Green, Iraqis opt for White and Black teas, Slovenia prefers Black teas. Darjeeling Oolongs are preferred in all countries. .

Pointing out that even in today’s age, between production to consumption, the time taken is between three to six months, which should not happen, he asserts that it should reach the end consumer in the shortest period of time. Dugar explains that there are five to seven intermediaries between the producer and the consumer (for example auctioneer, importer, retailer, etc). By the time the consumer receives his tea, no matter where he is in this world, most of its freshness has also gone as tea is a perishable product. “I realised there could be a big business opportunity if I could deliver teas fresh within days of production to consumers from around the world. That was the genesis of Teabox,” adds Dugar. He started with Darjeeling teas as Darjeeling is one of the most well known Indian teas and people across the world are familiar with it. Earlier the site used to be called Darjeeling Tea Express and within few months it got a lot of traction from English speaking countries such as the US, Canada, Australia and the UK. “Consumers who were connoisseurs and have been drinking tea for 20-30 years gave us the feedback that they were unaware that Darjeeling tea could be so good. That’s when we realised the potential in the market and not just for Darjeeling tea but also Assam, Nilgiri, Nepal and Kangra teas,” he says. Teabox became the first tea company in India to raise professional venture capital – a million dollar seed round from Accel Partners (one of the world’s leading VC firms). “We want to emerge as India’s leading global tea brand,” states Dugar, adding that, the value chain of the industry is such that they are very happy selling it to the next person and the supply chain. “Our focus is to deliver the world’s freshest tea and leverage the internet to reach out to consumers in more than 80 countries and in the process create India’s first global brand. Over the last two and a half years we have shipped more than 30 million cups of tea to customers across the world,” he mentions. Following the funding, Teabox opened another office in Bengaluru from where marketing, technology, customer service operate. The company grew about ten times last year and raised about Rs 40 crore from a global group of investors including a customer who is not just a hardcore tea connoisseur but also the founder of one of the world’s largest private equity company. Subscription engine Teabox recently launched a subscription system for tea enthusiasts and novices to solve the problem of tea discovery. “The kind of teas we deal with, only a few people are able to differentiate. Most people do not know what is a first flush, or what is a Muscatel,” reminds Dugar. Being a technology company, he and his team came up with a solution to solve the problem. “We started researching and realised that wine which is in certain ways a similar industry, people have used technology. We have created the world’s first personalised tea subscription engine. While people might not know anything about tea they will certainly know about their taste and palate. We ask four-five questions which gives us an idea about of the customer’s taste and palate. We ask what kind of chocolates they like (bitter, milk), smells (flowers, fruits, wet earth), all these questions help us build a personal palate profile of every customer. On the tea side every single tea is analysed on 75 attributes. Once a customer gives his answers, our algorithm comes up with the answer that matches his palate almost 75 per cent.” The machine learning technology breaks down subjective words like ‘floral’, ‘sweet’ and ‘astringent’ into over 75 quantifiable attributes. The whole solution is technology driven – it is a machine learning algorithm. It is an inhouse software developed by a team of product managers, engineers and designers. The teas are sent in a beautiful curated box to the customer. “Once you taste the teas you give us the feedback. The feedback again goes to the engine which now has a better idea of your palate profile. By the time the third and fourth subscription delivery is made, the tea selection is fine tuned as per the machine learning algorithm,” informs Dugar. The data of thousands of consumers who are giving feedback on a monthly basis is also compared. Over a period of time Teabox can give a tea to subscribers which is close to their taste than any other tea company in the world. “We recently tried for a patent as well,” adds Dugar. Teabox is looking at converting novices into connoisseurs of tea. Being an industry where the consumption is primarly outside India, the company is looking at aggressively reaching new markets. Currently apart from the US, Russia is one of the biggest markets. The company has just gone into China, and going forward will enter Korea and Japan. Dugar informs that when Teabox enters new markets it creates an entirely localised website. People of Russian and Chinese nationalities work in its office in Bengaluru. “We have partnered with fulfilment centres in Russia so that using technology we can move the products faster and deliver quickly. For the next few years we want to increase focus in those countries as well as increase subscription to cater to a larger segment of tea enthusiasts and novices,” remarks Dugar. Teabox exports 95 per cent of the production, and five per cent consumed in India. The company is constantly investing in infrastructure. A few months ago the company opened the first cold storage for tea in Siliguri. According to Dugar there are four main enemies of tea – oxygen, light, moisture and temperature. And if all these four elements are not arrested within 24 to 48 hours of production, the quality of tea and freshness deteriorates. At Teabox, tea is got directly from plantations within 24 to 48 hours. Quality control and cleaning is done and then the tea is stored in cold storage in vacuum packs at -5 degrees. “Even if the tea is consumed after two years it is as good as produced yesterday. We are only able to do that because of our presence at source and our investment in technology and infrastructure,” he says. Teabox is also looking at the hospitality space in the near future, in particular high-end luxury hotels in India and overseas. New innovative packages and accessories, corporate gifting are the other new initiatives. Next January, Dugar is also looking at opening kiosks in select locations in India and overseas. .

The sumptuous homes of the estate owners and managers contrast starkly with the humble mud houses of the workers, lending a hierarchical, almost feudal feel. In today’s competitive international marketplace fragrant Indian teas are considered delicate and exclusive but have been overshadowed by brews from smaller producers such as Kenya and Sri Lanka. However this year, climate change has affected tea production in Kenya and pushed up global tea prices and this might work to the advantage of India’s tea industry. Online disruption is looming, through retailers such as Teabox, based in Siliguri in Darjeeling. Its formula for modernizing the dilapidated supply chain: Ship the output of small producers under its own online brand, cutting the time from tea garden to teacups around the globe from months to mere days. With the backing of investors such as Silicon Valley’s Accel Partners, Teabox boasts a personalized tea subscription: Customers take a short online quiz that reveals their preferences and habits, which an algorithm then converts into a selection. Perhaps technology can help age-old Indian brews reclaim their rightful place in the global tea pantheon. .

Going fresh online In 2012, Dugar created Darjeelingteaexpress.com, an online portal that exported Darjeeling tea worldwide. Production, post production and packaging was set up in Siliguri and the end result got fantastic feedback from consumers. “Our process begins with sourcing the tea, bringing it into our sourcing centres within 24 hours, sending it into cold storage within 48 hours, and this ensures least amount of deterioration,” he explains. With such respect accorded to the sensitivities of tea, Dugar and his team, have managed to package fine teas that are appreciated world over. Sensing a great opportunity in this space, Dugar extended the business idea to include several other varieties of tea and in 2014, Teabox.com came into being. The two year wait was due to Dugar’s search for an able e-commerce partner who could help the company reach its potential consumers on a global scale. “Accel Partners came onboard with a round of seed funding (US $1 million) in 2014 and this led us to the right e-commerce partner,” says Dugar. Today, it ships to over 80 countries worldwide including the U.S., the U.K., Russia and the traditional tea drinking markets such as China. When it first began shipping tea the end-consumer had to wait up to 25 days to taste the product while now, partnering with local logistics providers has cut short the wait to anywhere between six days and eight days. Teabox opened its Bengaluru office the same year and currently, it houses the technology, sales and marketing teams, with an overall strength of 35 people. In March 2015, Teabox received its Series A worth US $6 million in a round led by JAFCO Asia. The other investors were Keystone Group, Dragoneer Investment Group and existing investors Accel Partners. These funds will help Teabox expand its global reach to include markets such as Japan and Korea and create local marketing teams in these regions to build business. A portion of the funds will also go towards setting up cold storage facilities at Siliguri, Coonoor and Guwahati. Speaking of the company’s funding story, Dugar shares, “The global market size for tea exceeds US $60 billion and to tap into this, our scalable business model and my domain knowledge were quite attractive to venture capitalists.” Dugar is also quick to add that his investment partners have invested more than just their money in the venture by providing the company valuable guidance and access to resources that have helped it scale. Bringing in the new I quiz Dugar on the challenges he faced while establishing Teabox and he admits that conquering the old mindset was most trying. “It took me over two years to convince producers of the worldwide potential of the Internet,” he recalls. While that took its time, setting up a global e-commerce venture in Siliguri where the availability of talent is limited, also proved difficult. He attributes the first few hires to luck and as the word and business spread, Dugar managed to ramp his team to include a wide talent pool. “Our research and development head was previously a product manager at Starbucks, Seattle and our shared passion for tea brought her here,” he says. Hiring for the office in Bengaluru was much easier as by then the company had access to its investing partners’ network. Another significant challenge for Dugar and his team to surmount was that their business model didn’t allow for touch, smell or taste of their product. The team won over its consumers with painstaking descriptions of its teas that included details on the body, the aroma, the date the tea leaves were plucked, the specialty of the plantation it was grown in and much more. “This detailed description of our teas was comforting enough for consumers to give us a first shot. Post that, it’s more than half the battle won, given that we have over 70 per cent repeat orders,” chuckles Dugar. Teabox has also created starter kits which allow consumers to sample four different varieties at one go. What truly sets Teabox apart is that it uses technology as an enabler and does so very effectively. It recently launched an algorithm-based personalised tea service where a consumer takes a survey and the computer matches his/her attributes to that of a tea and delivers a match with an accuracy rate of over 35 per cent. By the third order placement that rate zooms up to 90 per cent. “We have a pending patent on this invention and I’m sure it will generate a lot of curiosity amongst consumers,” says a confident Dugar. As he looks to the future, Dugar states that he is toying with the idea of setting up little kiosks offline, just to create a Teabox experience. His choice of locations, however, will be his primary markets; he’s eyeing San Fransisco, New York, London, Tokyo and Singapore. “The pricing on our teas starts at Rs. 7,000 and goes up to Rs. 1.5 lakh and I’m not sure Indians are ready to fork out that kind of money for a cup of tea,” he opines. Dugar does see a difference in the Indian mindset, especially the upwardly mobile with an exposure to refined tastes, and is hopeful that tastes will change sooner than later. Till then, he’s happy growing his volume orders in foreign markets. “Last year, we grew at 10X and this year, we look to outdo that,” he concludes. .

After the user consumes the tea, the company requests for feedback based on which the recommendations are fine-tuned. Using previous behaviour and different data points captured from a user to predict what he or she is more likely to buy is not new in ecommerce. For the tea industry, where sprawling estates still run on ledgers designed in the British colonial era, this is right out of the future. "Tastes are unique and with each prediction our engine gets better," said Dugar. "With the first order, we are 75% sure of which teas you are going to like. The next order has85% accuracy. As you taste, read and go through sessions, you become a connoisseur," he said. Teabox, founded in 2012, uses technology to improve the tea industry's supply chain. "The quality of tea deteriorates due to lack of storage and transport infrastructure. We take care of that by being at the source, shipping tea within 48 hours of production and reducing the time for consumption to 5-7 days," said Dugar, who hails from a family of traders who supply equipment to tea estates. One of the company's early backers, Oak Hill Capital founder Robert Bass, was originally a customer who was impressed by the freshness of the tea sold by Teabox. .

Moreover, it includes tasting notes to guide you through the flavors and story behind each tea, while brewing guides features advice from the experts on how to best brew each tea. The prices vary depending on whether you sign up for an annual, six-month or monthly plan, but it will cost between $30 and $35 (USD) (or your local currency equivalent) every month, which includes shipping. Yes, it’s more expensive than your typical industrial-sized box of Typhoo, but if ‘fresh’ and ‘quality’ is what you’re after, well, it’s this market Teabox is serving. The scale at which Teabox is already operating, with fully localized pricing and shipping to more than 70 countries, certainly bodes well for its future – after water, tea is thought to be the most popular beverage in the world. To date, the company has shipped the equivalent of five million cups of tea to customers in dozens of countries, and has reduced the typical production>consumption period from between 3-6 months to as little as one week, so we’re talking fresh here. “There’s a general tendency in the (tea) industry to use ad-agency manufactured slogans, as facts to sell tea,” explains Dugar. “Anybody can call their tea ‘the best’ or ‘the finest’ or ‘first-class’. But that doesn’t necessarily make it any of those terms, unless it really is fresh – and this is the core component of a great tea.” Fresh tea, on demand, direct from source, within seven days of harvesting – that’s the main selling point here. “When it comes to freshness and quality, the industry does not want to talk about in detail and books often lack real, hard information,” continues Dugar. “At Teabox, we’re changing this trend. We’re making all relevant information available, such as the date of picking of tea, its origin, the season it was picked in, and more to our customers.” Teabox’s ‘Fresh Beginnings’ hand-selected subscription service is in private beta now, though anyone with the link can sign up. The first boxes will start shipping on May 14. Meanwhile, if you know exactly what you’re after and don’t want a regular box arriving at your home each month, it’s business as usual at Teabox. .