Sequoia invests $20 million in…an Indian coffee company?

Matt Marshall | July 19th, 2006
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Sequoia Capital, the Silicon Valley venture capital firm that made its name investing in deep technology (Cisco, Apple, Google), has invested $20 million in an Indian coffee company, Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading Company Ltd (branded as CoffeeDay).

Word comes from Sahad PV, the blogger at VC Circle who does an Indian equivalent of SiliconBeat.

So at Sequoia lately we have T-Shirts, and now coffee. And quite a mature large coffee company at that. We also have shoes, dolls for little girls, and weather. What are they drinking over their at Sequoia. Decaf? ;)

This does match what we’ve heard about investing in India, that is is still mostly late-stage.

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  1. July 26th, 2006
    2:35 pm

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6 Comments

  1. July 19th, 2006
    10:25 am

    m a said:

    Its a starbucks clone.

  2. July 19th, 2006
    12:03 pm

    Kamla said:

    Actually about 10 days ago one of the Indian newspapers mentioned $40 million (there were off by $20 million!) in funding for Amalgamated Beans y that owns Cafe Coffee Day chain in India.

    http://kamlabhatt.wordpress.com/2006/07/04/sequoia-to-invest-40-million-in-cafe-coffee-day/

  3. July 19th, 2006
    4:20 pm

    bala said:

    Interesting, my first experience going to coffee day in Hyderabad, India was not that pleasant!!

    First, coffee costs as much as $2….where as in the same neighbourhood one can get coffee for 25c. Then they have this very loud, ear piercing rock music in the background, literally got a headache in a minute, could not stand for 5 minutes left the place without coffee!!

    Recently I heard from friends that this place is popular with college kids, hip recruiters, and young couples!

    -Bala

  4. July 19th, 2006
    8:44 pm

    vish said:

    I agree with the rock music thing…gives a damn headache.

  5. July 19th, 2006
    10:37 pm

    Matt Marshall said:

    Haha, welcome to the Indian Starbucks folks! Only thing you haven’t complained about is the chills. They turn on the conditioners so you don’t stay too long and hog the chairs ;)

  6. July 19th, 2006
    10:56 pm

    RYK said:

    quite a good investment as there is a dearth of coffee shops in India, Southeast Asia & Middle East. And considering Starbucks can always buy Coffee Day later, it makes sense.

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