2016

WHY RATAN TATA IS BACKING THIS NEW BRAND THAT FUSES TECH AND TEA ESTATES

Dugar raised $6 million to change that. His startup Teabox combines technology with tea to create India’s first global premium tea brand. Much like other subscription box enterprises, Dugar developed a monthly service that caters to a customer’s palate. Each month, customers are sent an assortment of teas.

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. .

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