Indian specialty coffee brand First Coffee has successfully raised $1.3 million in a new funding round to accelerate its retail expansion across the country. The prominent Japanese venture capital firm DG Daiwa Ventures led the round, marking its first investment in India’s rapidly growing specialty coffee market.
Other notable participants in this seed round included BEENEXT, alongside prominent angel investors Sanjay Kapoor and Shashank Bhagat, who are backing the brand’s unique retail thesis.
The first coffee chain created by businessmen Sohrab Sitaram and Shiv Dhawan is First Coffee. This coffee chain differs from others because it has not adopted the traditional format of large coffee shops where people need to sit down.
This is achieved by locating quick-service kiosks in densely populated areas, including fancy high streets, shopping malls, business parks, and transport stations. With this system, the firm will be able to lower its costs of acquiring quality locations and maximize its presence in densely populated areas.
The newly available funds will be used to aggressively expand stores, recruit leadership talent, invest in marketing, and develop new products. Although First Coffee is already present in Delhi, Punjab, and Haryana with an impressive reputation, these funds will help evaluate whether the company’s model can scale to other Indian cities.
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The challenge for the brand will be staying consistent with its product, taste, and delivery at an exponentially greater scale. The brand itself has been specifically designed to target Generation Z and millennials who want high-quality drinks without having to go into coffee shops.
