Kaushal Dugar established Teabox in 2014 as a premium tea brand focused on vertical integration of sourcing, branding and distributing teas while upending the traditional retail model in the process. With selections from over 200 different tea plantations in India and Nepal, Siliguri-based Teabox offers the largest variety of fine teas at a good price. In just two years, the company has delivered over 20 million cups’ worth of tea to customers in 76 countries. By ridding the supply-chain of intermediaries, the company has cut short the process of tea from anywhere between three and six months to one week.  This has ensured the freshness of its teas, better pricing and a wider reach.

Accel Partners came onboard with a round of seed funding of US $1 million in 2014 and the company received its Series-A to the tune of US $6 million in a round led by  JAFCO Asia with the other investors being Keystone Group, Dragoneer Investment Group and existing investors Accel Partners.

The company has grown 10 times during the 2014-15 fiscal.

Investing online: Teabox sells its teas using an online portal and has no offline presence. It ships to over 76 countries worldwide including Russia and China. In the future, the company aims at setting up kiosks in destination cities such as San Fransisco, New York, London, Tokyo and Singapore, more as a marketing vehicle than a distribution channel. 

Investing in technology: The Teabox subscription program combines high-tech science and personal preferences to help users discover delicious teas they’ll love.  Its prediction engine uses a patent-pending technology platform that breaks down the complex and subjective tasting notes of teas into objective components, which are then matched up to user preferences. This makes the subscription program a fun and easy way to get started with high quality teas from India & Nepal.