Here is Tale of Darjeeling..

Dorje Teas, a Darjeeling tea brand founded by Sparsh Agarwal from Darjeeling Ishaan Kanoria from Kolkata. Darjeeling is made of two words “Dorje” which means thunder and “ling” which means land. Dorje Teas is a story of the finest tea that grows in the land of thunder. Along with the changing seasons, the colour of the tea, its aroma as well as its taste change and owing to this enchantment people across the globe relish Darjeeling tea.

Ishaan and Sparsh are childhood friends. They both grew in Kolkata. Family of Sparsh Agarwal has been into the Darjeeling tea business for nearly five generations.

India has 10,000 tea gardens. But only 87 of them are in and around Darjeeling, producing high quality teas known worldwide as “The Champagne of Teas.” The sad thing is that most of these gardens today are heavily loss making. They noticed that for the last decade or so, a combination of factors such as climate change, political turmoil, mismanagement, a dampening export market, and exploitative middlemen, had been severely affecting the operations of these heritage gardens. The business of Darjeeling tea has always been one of export but owing to the pandemic in 2020, this traditional business suffered a huge setback.

How "Dorje Teas" started its journey..

Dorje began as a conversation between friends about the decaying Darjeeling Tea industry, immediately after the lockdown last year. Normally when a tea estate does not do well, the owners sell these gardens for running the business of hotels and resorts. If the hotels and resorts are built, the production of tea lowers. Without tea, Darjeeling cannot survive. Darjeeling’s existence is only from its tea.

Ishaan and Sparsh have an intimate connection with Selim Hill Tea Garden. Looking at the impact of the lockdown on the Darjeeling tea industry, they put their minds to coming up with a solution and one year later, in the throes of the lockdown, here they are. They have both left their former jobs at investment banks and think tanks to come on-board Dorje and help steward a new, innovative, sustainable and just model. Both of them always visited Selim Hill in the holidays. It’s spread over a thousand acres. Both of them have forged a very deep bond with the locals and tea gardens there. In order to keep those moments alive, they established Dorje. They sell Dorje teas through subscription model from their tea estates right to subscriber’s doorstep. This certified organic tea is plucked, packed and dispatched from Darjeeling’s famous Selim Hill Tea Estate.

Every year in spring, Darjeeling receives its first showers of rain. It feels as though a desolate place has flourished overnight and with that flourish, tea bushes start to flush, that’s why this is called First Flush or Spring Harvest. When we make the transition from March into May, there occurs natural phenomena in Summer time, Due to attack of Thrips in tea bushes, they eat and they give rise to an oxidation process before plucking. The smell that it emits is known as muscatel like the fragrance of musk. Then we come from summer season to rainy season, with the rain comes, the noise of storms and there is also the clarinet of dreams and in between the colour of the tea turns dark black. The inhabitants of Darjeeling say that this tea isn’t to be consumed. They roast this tea at very high temperatures. They call it roasted Darjeeling. You can also add a tablespoon of milk to it.

Here is the most interesting tale of Darjeeling, on one full moon night of every season, which we call purnima, all the employees of Selim Hills Tea Garden tread the mountains with torches in their hands, they say we are nature, we are immortal and as the full moon comes out and the tea leaves are blooming, they carefully pluck two leaves in a bud which in Nepali is called “Dui paat ek suiro” they pluck only those. They delicately hand roll them and make the finest white tea from them. From monsoon we come to the last season in winter. This is last harvest of the year Final Flush

What was available on the shelves was neither organic, fresh, authentic, nor flavoursome. Even the new-age D2C companies that were trying to disrupt the market, had merely replaced the middlemen— neither were the gardens benefitting under their model, nor were the customer. They wanted to change that. Through their subscription model, they make the entire produce from the garden available to their customers. This does two things.

First, they curate a new and unique tea experience for the customer. Second, the tea garden no longer has to be dependent on multinationals, exporters, or retailers. By connecting customers directly to the garden, not only do the gardens benefit, but so do the customers. They feel that only a subscription model can save Selim Hill Tea Garden from complete collapse.

Moreover, by becoming a subscriber, subscriber also becomes a supporter of the garden, and the community that makes these fine teas. For every subscriber who joins, they work with the Selim Hill Collective to plant a tree in their name.

India’s tea market stands at ₹1.2 lakh crore out of which the market of Darjeeling tea is mere 1% about ₹1500 Crore. Their vision is in 5 years they would like that they have 2-3 lakh maybe more subscribers & they will hit ₹100 crores in next 5 years. Their annual subscription is priced at ₹2100/- per year. They are also focusing on increasing their retail sales through offline shops.

Sales:

Their sales in the month of August 2022 was 11 Lakh and projected sales for F.Y. 2022-23/- ₹1.5 Crore. There is Gross Margin of 75% and cash burn of ₹2 Lakh in the revenue of ₹11 Lakh in the month of August 2022.

Funding and Valuation:

Before coming to Shark Tank India, They had raised ₹8.5 Crore funding in total (₹6.5 Crore from Brand Capital and remaining ₹2 Crore from angel investors and HNI) on a valuation of upto ₹32 Crore on a convertible note.

Ask and Deal:

Ask for funding by both co-Founders was ₹30 Lakh for 5% Equity at a Valuation of ₹6 Crore.

Vineeta Singh, Co-Founder & CEO, Sugar Cosmetics gave offer of ₹30 Lakh for 10% Equity at a Valuation of ₹3 Crore.

Anupam Mittal, Founder & CEO People Group and Peyush Bansal Co-Founder Lenskart.com joined Vineeta Singh in offer and revised the deal ₹30 Lakh for 15% Equity at a Valuation of ₹2 Crore.

Both co-founders accepted offer of Anupam Mittal, Founder & CEO People Group and Peyush Bansal Co-Founder Lenskart.com joined Vineeta Singh Co-Founder & CEO, Sugar Cosmetics of ₹30 Lakh for 15% Equity at a Valuation of ₹2 Crore.