A $10 million fundraising round headed by prominent investors such as Nikhil Kamath of Zerodha, the Blume Founders Fund, the Gauri Khan Family Trust, and Bollywood star John Abraham was recently completed by Subko Coffee Roasters, a specialty coffee and chocolate firm. The company’s valuation increased to almost $34 million post-money thanks to this investment, demonstrating the strong belief in Subko’s potential and its dedication to growing the unique craft café experience both domestically and abroad.
Subko coffee roaster is a Mumbai-based roastery and bakehouse that sources and roasts its own specialty single origin coffee.
Subko has great value for sustainability, quality, experience, region and its people. It commits passionately to an idea: to help reimagine, re-design and re-invent unlikely origin- the Indian subcontinent.
Seeing its growing popularity in the specialty coffee market, the company has raised $10 million in an investment round. Many prominent investors participated in the round and marked a journey from being a customer to investor of Subko.
The participants included Zeroadha’s co-founder Nikhil Kamath, Gauri Khan, John Abraham, Sangita Jindal, Srinivas and Pallavi Dempo and The Mehta Internation Mauritius Limited Group.
It’s post-money worth is estimated to be $34 million, according to a statement from the company.
Nikhil Kamath discussed how he went from being a Subko consumer to an investor, applauding the company’s development and expressing excitement for its continued expansion. With a product selection that includes baked products, coffee roasters, and caffeinated beverages, it places itself in the same league as rivals such as Third Wave Coffee and Blue Tokai. Despite already owning stock in Third Wave Coffee, Kamath’s purchase in Subko demonstrates his strong interest in the specialty coffee industry.
The founder, CEO, and creative director of Subko, Rahul Reddy, emphasized how his company’s investing philosophy and Nikhil Kamath’s support for developing Indian firms with global ambitions are strategically aligned. Reddy revealed intentions to utilize the extra funds for a number of strategic initiatives, such as recruiting top talent, leveraging technology to improve consumer experiences, and refining the supply chain for premium cacao beans and specialty green coffee. In a few global locations, Subko also intends to open flagship experiential cafés and innovative “ready to drink” coffee items.
“Furthermore, we are committed to facilitating the careful, calibrated and quality-first expansion of Subko’s unique craft café experiences to select Indian cities and potentially to global capitals, showcasing South Asian craftsmanship and the might of the region’s agricultural raw material. This is the vision under which we laid down the foundations of Subko and this mission has remained steadfast ever since,” said Rahul Reddy, founder, CEO, and creative director of Subko.
More about Subko
“Subko” can be interpreted by anyone understanding Hindi as “everyone,” consequently Subko Coffee literally means “coffee for everyone.” Rahul Reddy, one of the brand’s co-founders, however, asserts that the phrase “from the subcontinent for all” refers to the tri-script approach to branding, with Subko printed in Urdu, English, and Devanagari, and is really a play on words designed to reflect the subcontinent rather than India itself.
“In our case, the name came before everything else. ’Subko’ is my commitment to re-imaging, re-positioning, and redesigning what Indian coffee means to the rest of the world,” explains Rahul. “In addition to that, we want to build a legacy that highlights what the Indian subcontinent can do in the artisan and craft positioning globally, and represent that in a highly indigenized manner through contemporary design thinking and traditional typography and scripts.”
Not only that it sources and roasts its own coffee and create baked goods in house, but also promotes region, people and sustainability through its packaging and designs.
At Subko, packaging and design are given careful consideration. Following the creation of the tone and identity by illustrator Anuranjini Singh and visual artist The Big Fat Minimalist, the brand hired Radhika and Rutuja, two of its own employees, to craft an amazing backstory for each piece.
The beans are packaged in a 100% recyclable gusset, and each box is constructed from 100% recyclable kraft paper with biodegradable soluble inks. Each box has a picture of a coffee bean as its focal point, accompanied by a sticker inspired by vintage Indian train tickets that provides details on the bean’s origin, estate, altitude, and roast. Interesting information about the coffee in the pack is printed on the rear flap of the box, along with a message explaining how they roast micro-lots in tiny batches. After it’s opened, a QR code will take you to their “bloom school,” where you can find brewing instructions.
Moreover, it also runs The Cocoa Mill, Mumbai’s first chocolate factory, which is located in Colaba. The cacao pod is the undisputed favorite in the two stories and 2,000 square feet that make up The Cacao Mill by Subko—in terms of spirit, philosophy, and aesthetics.
The Pod to Bar Experience at The Cocoa Mill by Subko lets consumers taste the plant at each stage, shedding light on the journey that cacao takes from pod to fruit pulp to unroasted bean, husk to nibs, butter, powder, and ultimately bar.
According to Subko Specialty Coffee Roasters, they have a single goal. Their aim is to showcase the intricacy, careful attention to detail, and artistic quality of the specialty coffee supply chain, all the while delivering a distinctive experience that is exclusive to the Indian Subcontinent, the home of their partner farms.
Their objective is uncomplicated: to establish an authentically Asian specialty coffee movement capable of representing the area on an international scale within a globalized specialty coffee environment.
