Hasan Minhaj didn’t essentially plan so as to add investor to his already burgeoning resume. As an alternative, the chance introduced itself in a cup of clean, spicy chai.
9 months after his first sip of the Kolkata Chai Co.’s signature mix, the Day by day Present alumni has gone from a loyal buyer to the model’s second-largest stakeholder and enterprise associate, with an undisclosed however important funding.
Sitting down with ADWEEK, he was crystal clear this wasn’t one other perfunctory movie star ambassadorship however fairly a chance to deliver South Asian tradition into the mainstream and lean on his storytelling chops to provide chai its “matcha second.”
“There’s a groundswell of affection for the corporate, the model, the neighborhood that they’ve constructed that spoke to me,” he mentioned. “Not solely do I wish to be part of this… I imagine within the founders, I wish to put pores and skin within the sport and be a part of it,” he mentioned.
The brainwave of brothers Ayan and Ani Sanyal, Kolkata Chai began life as a café in New York’s East Village in 2019. The hotspot had a single mission: to serve up genuine Indian masala chai to Individuals in all its steaming, fragrant glory. It provided an antithesis to what it described because the “bastardized” model offered by company espresso chains.
By 2022 the startup had secured $1 million in funding. Advertising and marketing rooted in neighborhood and innovation — gentle serve chai ice cream giveaways, a collaboration with buzzy New York eatery seventh Avenue Burger, having Hasan serve drinks at its Williamsburg opening in Could — has pushed development rapidly.
It now counts three areas throughout New York and operates a flourishing on-line enterprise, the place patrons should buy its signature combine, reward containers, and recipes.
The latter accounts for the majority of its revenues, and because it plots its it’s eyeing a broader product vary and a deeper transfer into the CPG house.
Pals beneficial Minhaj try the model’s eponymous hangout for years. Nonetheless, between writing and filming two Netflix specials (the third is pending), securing a job within the movie It Ends With Us alongside Blake Vigorous, and co-founding manufacturing firm 186K Movies, he by no means fairly made it.
When his spouse walked into their Manhattan condo in January with a Kolkata Chai Co. starter equipment Minhaj had a mug, “fell in love with it,” instantly discovered Ani’s quantity on-line and rapidly organized a “meet-cute.”
