Tranquilitea

A trip to Europe in 2015 changed the perception of tea in eyes of entrepreneur Payal Mittal Agarwal. She met a woman in Ljubljana who had a collection of 200 types of Indian teas but never had she visited India. This incident gave her an insight on how Indian tea was enjoyed overseas not only as a beverage but for its medicinal benefits. Thereon she started her research on tea and found out even Chinese and Japanese people valued tea. This was the beginning of what is today a startup with a turnover of Rs 2 crore.

Payal is an active entrepreneur with having started a playschool and Cuppa Java Restaurant in Siliguri, her hometown. Tranquilitea was her third venture to make the best out of India’s tea production. The Indian Tea industry is currently second largest in the world after China and is expected to have a valuation of $1 billion by 2025.

Payal joined a tea factory owner to gain experience and understand market realities. She was simultaneously running her restaurant chain as well and within 10 months, they were presenting their tea at an international tea fair in China. This motivated Payal to popularize tea for its healing purposes. Tranquilitea today serves tea in 100 different varieties with options of customised tea.

The Gurugram-based startup was rolled out in April 2017 and has already served 15 million cups of tea (in terms of serving capacity). Tranquilitea started with an initial investment of Rs 7.5 Lakhs and it works on a B2B model. Payal sources raw materials from Tea plantations in Darjeeling or wholesalers. 

To begin her startup and provide quality education to her son, Payal moved to Gurugram after selling shares of her restaurant in Siliguri. She faced quite a few challenges in life from getting married at 19 and never being able to go to college to a broken marriage but these only made her stronger and brought out the entrepreneur in her. As part of Goldman Sachs 10,000 women entrepreneurs programme, Payal is an IIM-alumnus now.

The society failed to take her seriously even after she had two successful startups but she proved them all wrong and within 6 months her startup was recognised by Walmart and included in Women Entrepreneurship Development Program. Her top clients include IIM-B. Procter and Gamble, Vestige and CG Group in Nepal. Payal further plans health and wellness industry by starting yogaflix, a platform to teach yoga.

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