How an IIT Graduate Built India’s Fastest-Growing Coffee Chain | abCoffee Story | Pinkvilla Biz

Added: 2026-06-03

[00:00:00]Did I imagine if a coffee will be this big? I did. I actually planned in a way ahead that how big I want to build the company and I actually dived into the company because I wanted to make a 10,000 location coffee company in the country.

[00:00:12]>> [music] [music] [music] >> We have 97 locations in the country uh out of which we have around 53 in Mumbai itself and then Delhi and Bangalore.

[00:00:36]We do around 3 lakh cups of coffee a month across a couple of lakhs of customers.

[00:00:42]Uh that's the scale we are still early.

[00:00:44]The days are when I see couple of people standing, couple of green cups in their hand, just like the one I have in my hand and the coffee simply flowing out.

[00:00:52]The order process from app to the barista, barista making the coffee and back to the consumer. That's a blissful feeling. The many should we got it you know to many should we get it you know that you company got the location you company got money.

[00:01:04]>> Why wouldn't I idea sell coffee?

[00:01:06]>> What does the engineer do?

[00:01:08]An engineer solves problems, right? A lot of people will say engineer builds buildings, builds bridges. I say engineers are designed, trained, educated, they put into system to solve problems, right? That's the underlying thing. That's what we do, right? So what we are solving is a problem of how to get a luxurious product which has been in India for so long into a daily habit product. Funny Uh and I was 29 then. Then I moved to Europe. Uh I was in Romania for a couple of years. There I converted. I converted from uh chai person to a coffee person, right? I come from east part of the country, chai is a culture, chai is a tradition, chai is a religion in in in a way, right? But when I moved to Europe, my thing changed and I moved from chai to coffee. So when I was and that's when things clicked to me cuz I would make three bar coffee beta than me.

[00:01:59]And when I will drink thrice a day, I spend like 24,000 odd bucks in a month on coffee.

[00:02:07]And my cost of living in India was 1/3 of the cost of living there. How can a cup of coffee be priced the same as it was there and here, right? So then I thought there is a problem statement in terms of how coffee has been positioned in India.

[00:02:21]Seventh largest exporter of coffee.

[00:02:24]Oil may India imports 80% of oil, need of the country. Coffee maybe export 70% of what we produce. Right? So then I realized there is a problem of chicken and egg. Right? So problem is that not enough people are drinking coffees and hence uh the coffee prices remain very high and it's positioned like a luxurious product and a daily lifestyle product.

[00:02:45]Key then I was in Leh Ladakh.

[00:02:48]This is June 2021. And I remember my friend owns a cafe there and I'm sitting at the cafe in the Leh old market. And I'm looking outside uh uh sitting in the cafe.

[00:02:56]>> [music] >> Although in 500 m will be like 40-50 odd cafes.

[00:03:05]It's a touristic market. How do we still have so many cafes? That's when the idea clicked [music] that how about we have small format stores and there also by the way, the coffee was 300 rupees per cup.

[00:03:18]This thing just clicked to me, right? So I said, how about we have small formats?

[00:03:22]I can make single origin specialty grade coffee and have it at right price. And the right [music] price for us was simple, right? It's 280 rupees cappuccino in the US. By PPP, purchase price parity.

[00:03:35]So how do I get to that point? And the idea was to have smart, efficient, small format, technology enabled stores which can actually churn out high number of coffees so that we save cost and that cost saving it goes back to the consumer. So if I have to look back in a moment which actually clicked to me in terms of the format, it was Leh Ladakh. Those are At that point I used to do something called a thinking triplet.

[00:04:04]Just call my family and say I'm in this pin code. Next 3 days there's no network. And that triplet was meant to be to take a decision to job or not.

[00:04:18]And when will you make the big decision to say I'm going to quit all of this that you have built for the last 9 years and say jump into a field of entrepreneurship. Jump into the field of coffee that you don't know anything about. It came out of the thinking triplet and I said this is October now.

[00:04:31]March [music] is the time that I'll put down my papers. May or June I'm going to start. Then this is December 2021. My family was here. My father was here. And that was the first time I told him he Baba, now I want to start something on my own.

[00:04:47]And I want to do something in coffee. He had a job and he didn't get it.

[00:04:55]You know, he has a dream job. He has a dream career. Who will go now? Come March, 29th March, 30th March is when I put down my papers. 29th 29th March 11:00 p.m. I remember the night.

[00:05:04]And I called my mother first.

[00:05:11]I'm very confident I'm going to do this.

[00:05:12]I've already done my research.

[00:05:18]Gathered some of my energy, called my father at Already Baba made though I'll download.

[00:05:30]Everything is done. Email is written.

[00:05:32]And then I'll discuss with my I know that you are very clear. You have planned it. That's the way you are. I trust you, but still know that it's a very risky proposition what I'm trying to do.

[00:05:49]>> [music] >> I realized he motivation was gone for money.

[00:05:52]And I come from a very humble background family. But for that to make that money, to have that lifestyle was phenomenal.

[00:05:58][music] But then we got to realize that money is not something that gives me the kick.

[00:06:01]I'll get bored. It was a typical template, you know, study hard, get to a good college, get a job, get a good salary, get a house, get a car, get married, have kids and blah blah blah, right? That's the template that we have been told to.

[00:06:14]Uh but then in 2015 I realized that money doesn't give me a kick.

[00:06:18]The kick that I I get and that was my realization then was by impacting lives of people. 2016 I got to realize that 2016 was the point I was in Assam in Duliajan, it's upper Assam.

[00:06:29]>> [music] >> I was sitting there and I was like, "Yeah, kya karunga main Abhijit? 40 years on the line, how will you be What will you be doing?" That's when I made a life plan of 2047.

[00:06:37]And then I worked backwards. I was very clear, entrepreneurship was the unlock I was looking for to have an impact in life. A lot of people will probably say, "You know, in 2015 you were successful, in 2022 you were successful. Now probably you're successful building, you know, a couple of 100 crores of brand."

[00:06:53]I'll say, "I'm [music] not yet successful because the success of me lies 5 years ahead. And in 5 years later, when I'm there, I'm another 5 years ahead. So I'm still chasing the perfect Abhijit that's ahead of me."

[00:07:04]There's a There's a concept of lottery of birth. So what lottery of birth is that I can't choose where I'm born, which family I'm born to. Then which means that wherever whatever is the starting point, the [music] ending point is the destiny which is in the hands of the person. So for me it was clear, I was born in a small town in a village in Bihar. That was a lottery of birth, I just landed up there, I can't control it. That's the starting [music] destiny.

[00:07:29]But where will I end? It's in my hand.

[00:07:31]For the next 5 years you should never think about the money, failure or success. You should Your family should not bother about the money, failure or success. And your standard of living should not go down. If you can ensure these three things, that's when [music] I believe one should start. I started them. That was my formula. And for me that age was 31. Cuz then I know for the next 5 years, whatever happens, I don't need to be bothered. It reminds me of a question that one of my first investors asked me, "Abhijit, you're starting this, what is your plan B?" I said, "I I have plan B and plan C for almost everything. For Up Coffee, there is no plan B. This is the plan. So, there is no looking back, there is no falling back, there's only moving ahead. If I fail, I know this was a mistake I did and I'll become better. But there's no plan B for this. I'm going all in."

[00:08:13]"What if it didn't [music] work out?" I guess we'll never know about that.

[00:08:17]So, when I started Up Coffee, I put half a crore of money, 50 lakhs, to say, "This is the fund. This is what I'm going to deploy to start the business."

[00:08:24]First money that I invested in was into coffee. So, what I did was I went to Chikmagalur, I started working with green coffee plantations and green coffee. So, I wanted to start roasting it. Started [music] roasting, started cupping, and started figuring out what are the roast profile that would work.

[00:08:37]That was the first penny spent into the company. This is February 2022. I took my car out and in just Mumbai, Mumbai, I would have gone around around 800 km.

[00:08:48][music] I drove myself in a span of 5 to 7 days, if I remember correctly.

[00:08:58]to Colaba, Colaba to Mahape, to Kalyan, Dombivli, Kharghar, right all across.

[00:09:16]First location that came was Bandra.

[00:09:17]Okay? So, Bandra, I liked the location.

[00:09:19]Then I realized he kind of people I'm looking for. And then the second location I got also was also Versova.

[00:09:25]Okay? So, Versova, Bandra, Versova, Bandra I had confusion. So, the people the PG that I was serving to start with live in Versova. Why? Versova Aram Nagar area. Now, [music] Versova Aram Nagar is like every creative artist in the country when they land to Mumbai, Aramnagar is one of the destination, right? They're young, they're hungry, they're bold, they're fast, they're aspirational, fashionable, they want coffee. And the rent and the location, all of this confined together said Versova is the place. That is the day and today is the day Versova still happens to be one of the best stores in the country. Is it greater market make way to go to Mussoorie? I don't know if you could put sugar in the water to give it a flavor.

[00:10:04]When you look for you're absolutely right. There there are tens of brands, you know, red, green, gray, yellow, orange, pink, I don't know. You can just think of colors and you'll find brands. Now, all of none of these brands actually serve the real use case of coffee. Coffee is a lifestyle product. It's a habit product. It's consumed frequently. Many people consume it daily. But, what have the entire ecosystem done is [music] is that when you come and sit down at my place, then you drink coffee. Now, that's not a lifestyle use case, right? Do you drink tea only when you go out? Do you eat dal chawal only when you go out? No.

[00:10:38]So, then how come coffee you only drink when you go out in a cafe? The entire grab-and-go space that we started off was a empty slate. It was either a tupperware at 10 or a cafe at 300. There was a huge white space in between for a daily lifestyle brand. That was what we were attempting to fill. So, I was not building a boutique cafe. I was building a business out of it, which is scalable, makes money, is useful to the consumers, and can lakhs of people around the country. So, for me it was not about the sofas and the chandeliers and the and the Wi-Fi, right? For me it was how do you get a great cup of cappuccino or coffee brewed right at a right price so that it becomes a daily habit for the consumer. So, never ever, even today with 97 locations and all the kind of fundraisers we have done and kind of partners we have, even today if somebody tells me "Avijit, this is a 2,000 sq ft unit. Can you build a beautiful cafe?

[00:11:33]I'm not an expert [music] at that. Now, you give me 20 locations which is 100 square foot grab and go. I can put technology in it. I'll do it tomorrow.

[00:11:39]So, what does a day for an Up Coffee look like? So, we have two kind of format stores. One that is located on High Street, second one that's located in near and about office hubs, right?

[00:11:49]Both stores work in different kind of time formats. Let's take High Street format. Opens around 5:30 a.m. in the morning. A barista comes at 5:30 a.m. in the morning. 6:00 a.m. is when the first coffee starts serving. May go up to 12:00 a.m. 1:00 a.m., 4:00 a.m.

[00:12:00]depending on the regulatory regulations of the region. I think one thing that I always have is I don't say same thing doesn't keep me awake at night [music] every day.

[00:12:12]There are days that actually freaks me out in terms of am I going slow in the process of realizing the vision that I have for 2047. Will I reach my goal of 2040, 2035, 2030? That's one thing I have at certain times. As the funny anecdote or let's say scenario could be. Versova outlet was signed. Outlet construction is on the go. Brand name is not decided.

[00:12:34]Company's name is BrewBae Innovations Private Limited. And I had thought the name of the brand will be BrewBae. Then all of a sudden I realized BrewBae, brew relates more with beer, not with coffee.

[00:12:45]Unfortunately, although while you brew coffee, it said you have a notion that it will take off. Then we landed up I was in a scenario outlet ban brand name not final. And then I started looking at every word that I would find in coffee, the word has been taken. Coffee is as a brand as you will think of a name, there is a cafe existing with that name around the world. It was clear that you know we are building one of the largest coffee chains out of India. Probably we will have plans international couple of years or decades let's say later. We have to have a name that flies everywhere.

[00:13:11][music] Then we landed up to a name called Spark Coffee. And then that name was also taken by somebody else.

[00:13:17]>> [music] >> And then I enter a meditation and I I used to meditate often there in a lot.

[00:13:21]There was a chain in Spain with a similar name that we [music] have. I enter that and I come out of it sinking up coffee. Now, coffee. We would be selling roughly, uh I'll tell you a monthly data. We'll be selling around 3 lakhs [music] coffee a month.

[00:13:37]Uh we have around 97 locations around the country and we'll be making uh north of 5 and 1/2 crores in a month.

[00:13:47]I work backwards.

[00:13:49]So, I am very clear that we'll have at a certain point in time 25,000 baristas, 10,000 locations in the country and I'm building an extremely complex wide network business.

[00:13:59]It's just the starting days. We're just getting started. So, uh did I envision it? 100%. If I had not thought of a thousand 10,000 outlets, I would not started the company. Cuz my thing in life is if you do if you don't build big enough, I'll not get myself into it. So, when we started, we started with a basic coffee menu, right? Because cappuccino, Americano, latte, flat white, iced latte, iced Americano, cold coffee, etc., right? Then we added added uh vertical categories, right? So, vertical categories are like bobas, slushies, protein, matcha. [music] In summers, it's coolers.

[00:14:31]Uh it's mango, right? So, we added vertical categories, right? So, this vertical category then expanded.

[00:14:36]Although the name is up coffee, but we just don't do coffee. We do single origin coffee, we do single origin matcha, we do bobas, uh protein, slushies and then seasonal beverages. So, now it's a house of beverages under the brand name of coffee.

[00:14:51]Coffee is becoming mainstream in the country and I think we are only I think less than 5 years when specifically in tier one, it'll become a daily habit product for large part of the city uh across the strata of the city city and then it will go penetrate deeper into uh other cities around the country.

[00:15:09]It's already is As of now, it's still an uh at some occasion drinking. It will just become merge into daily life thing.

[00:15:18]So, future of coffee in one word is phenomenal.