Chai Point is planning to go public and list on the stock market by the middle of 2026. The popular chain sellsalmost a million cups of tea every day. The tea chain achieved a special milestone in the Maha Kumbh. Chai Point opened its first outlet in Koramangala in Bengaluru in 2010. "Why can't we bring authentic, flavourful, and high-quality tea to the masses in the most hygenic ways at an affordable price," says founder. When Amuleek and I co-founded the venture, we had 5 employees – most of them store staff. Two years later, Chai Point started expanding outside of Bengaluru and opened up stores in Delhi first and eventually expanded to Mumbai and Pune. "We now have over Out of the 170 stores, 60 stores have seating areas while the remaining 110 are walk-ins. "In the next 2 years, we plan to open another 300 stores," he added. Chai Point is rooted in India's tea culture.

Its appeal is for those who appreciate the rich flavours and cultural significance of chai. "Just like Coke or Pepsi, we also have our secret formula for brewing that special tea," Khanna said. Chai Point now has presence in multiple Indian cities with presence across retail locations, airports, and business parks. In addition to physical format stores, the chain has a delivery service and a vending based solution called 'Vending as a Service' Chai Point installs and services bots at institutions such as offices and hospitals. Unlike other similar beverage chains which run on a franchise model, Chai Point runs on a company-owned store Model. The firm is deploying 500 + bots on a monthly basis and wants to take it to 750 bots in the next 12 months. "Currently we are close to 1,400 employees. Each store brings in 6 more employees and this is where 95 per cent of employee growth will happen," says Chai Point is looking at a primary plus secondary capital round in this fiscal year. "We sell close to 9,00,000 cups of tea daily," he said. At the Maha Kumbh, "a little over 1 lakh cups ofTea were sold every day" "We are looking to be PBT (Profit Before Tax) cash flow positive in the next 4-5 months," he said.

Presently, founders, employees and early angels have close to 25 per cent in the company. "Covid hit operations badly with sales drying up. Many left the firm to join larger companies," Khanna said. "Rest is with institutional investors," he said of Chai Point. "We are redefining how India experiences tea and coffee' bringing together cutting-edge AI, IoT (Internet of Things), and cloud technology to ensure a perfectly brewed cup, every single time," says Khanna. "With over 5,000 + smart brewing machines deployed across the country The innovations include tech-driven consistency and real-time monitoring, remotely updating recipes and ensuring every cup meets Chai Point's gold standard of taste. This prevents breakdowns proactively, using AWS and GCP cloud platforms for predictive maintenance. "We capture every critical data point in real time, enabling continuous performance optimisation and reliability," the company says. "By harnessing AWS streaming services, we capture everycritical data point," it adds.