Third Wave Coffee is brewing new funding round led by Westbridge

The round also includes a secondary share sale in which some of its early individual investors will exit. Once the deal is closed, the startup is expected to be valued at $80-100 million, people briefed on the matter said.

“WestBridge is leading the round which will include secondaries as Third Wave had raised capital initially through smaller cheques from many individuals and several of them are being given exits,” a person aware of the matter said. The quick service restaurant (QSR)-format coffee chain firm had raised $6 million in December 2021.

Besides WestBridge Capital, existing backer Sujeet Kumar, cofounder of Udaan, is also investing more in this round, according to the people mentioned above.

Founded in 2017 by Sushant Goel, Ayush Bathwal and Anirudh Sharma, Third Wave runs around 40-50 outlets across India’s top five cities, including Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru. Its monthly revenue is around Rs 7-8 crore, sources said. It also sells a range of coffee powders under the same brand.

The company will use the new capital to double down on post-pandemic expansion across Mumbai, Delhi and other cities. “They are expanding in Mumbai significantly now after having entered the Delhi-NCR market. Pune is another market for them in the western part of the country,” a source said.

Discover the stories of your interest

Goel declined to comment while an email sent to WestBridge Capital did not elicit a response.

In December, Third Wave said it had tripled the number of stores to around 35 over the past year. Blue Tokai is another new-age coffee chain in urban markets, competing with older firms such as Starbucks, Cafe Coffee Day and Costa Coffee.

WestBridge Capital, which previously had backed Cafe Coffee Day, invests across traditional sectors and in new-age firms. Its portfolio includes startups such as SaaS platform Innovaccer, mobility firm Rapido, edtech company Vedantu, among others.