Restaurant chain Boba Bhai raises ₹12.5 cr seed funding

Bengaluru-based restaurant chain Boba Bhai has raised ₹12.5 crore in seed funding from investors led by Snapdeal founders’ venture fund, Titan Capital, and Global Growth Capital UK.

The company has raised the seed round at a valuation of ₹50 crore, said Dhruv Kohli, Founder, Boba Bhai. The round also saw participation from Marsshot VC (RazorPay founders fund), DEVC, Warm up Ventures, Asit Oberoi, 1947 Rise Fund by Shiva Singh Sangwan, Peercheque, Varun Alagh, Mandeep Sodhi, Prabhraj (Simba Beer), FinFirst, Neha Patil, Abhinav Sinha from Oyo, and other angel investors.

The company currently operates 25 outlets across cities, including Delhi, Gurugram, Udaipur, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Chennai. It plans to have 100 outlets within the next 12 months, said Kohli. All the outlets are company owned.

“I believe foreign cuisines, especially Korean food, will have a big market in India. Our goal is to expand in tier-1 cities within the next six months and then go to tier-2 and tier-3 cities,” Kohli told businessline.

Boba Bhai’s current annual revenue run rate (ARR) is ₹24 crore and monthly revenue run rate is ₹2 crore, processing over 50,000 monthly orders. “We are aiming for ARR of ₹100 crore over the next 12 months; we’re on track for it,” he added.

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According to Kohli, the company also plans to use the money to increase its workforce and incorporate advanced technologies. It employs 200, including culinary staff.

In cities such as Bengaluru, Boba Bhai has 90 per cent market share in the bubble tea sector, the company said. “We aim to capture 75-80 per cent market share in India in FY24,” Kohli said.

Nearly 70 per cent of Boba Bhai’s orders come through the company website and online platforms such as Zomato, Swiggy and ONDC, and the rest from its outlets.

“We are impressed with Dhruv`s vision and sharp execution with intense clarity in introducing and building ‘bubble tea-based Korean cuisine food brand in India’, starting with Bangalore and now expanding to Delhi-NCR and other cities. The team’s commitment to tailor-make a range of bubble teas to cater to the varied palates and preferences of Indian consumers has helped it gain immense popularity in a short span of time. We are pleased to partner with a brand with a vision to build a large food brand in India with solid taste, demand, and frugal distribution,” said Bipan Shah, Partner, Titan Capital.

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