Blue Tokai, widely seen as Starbucks' biggest rival in India, is planning to more than triple its store count over the next four years as it bets on the country's expanding premium coffee market, Bloomberg reported.
Co-founder and chief executive Matt Chitharanjan told Bloomberg that the specialty coffee chain aims to grow from roughly 240 outlets currently to 800 by FY30. As part of this push, the company plans to open about 120 new cafes this financial year, spread across major metros, while also making its entry into newer markets such as Ahmedabad and Lucknow.
"India is still fairly under-penetrated in terms of branded cafes," Chitharanjan said. "While it may seem from the outside that there's a lot of competition, there's still tons and tons of white space."
1 June 2026
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India's Cafe Market on The Rise
The expansion plan comes at a time when India's organised cafe market is picking up pace, aided by rising disposable incomes, growing premiumisation, and shifting consumer habits in cities. Research firm IMARC Group estimates that the market, valued at $425 million in 2025, will nearly triple to $1.15 billion by 2034, growing annually at 11.14%.
Separately, Mordor Intelligence has identified India as the fastest-growing specialty coffee market within Asia-Pacific, a region expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 8.03% through 2031. The firm noted that specialty coffee consumption is also deepening in China, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and Indonesia, while cities in the Gulf are emerging as new growth hubs.
Competition in India's cafe space is intensifying alongside this growth. Starbucks, run in India through a joint venture with Tata Consumer Products, plans to add up to 100 outlets a year to its existing base of over 500 stores. Other domestic chains, including Third Wave Coffee, Cafe Coffee Day and Barista, are expanding as well.
Talks Underway to Raise $100 Mn
According to a separate Mint report, Blue Tokai has held early discussions with private equity firms such as TPG, Temasek and ChrysCapital to raise at least $100 million. The funding round being discussed would likely include a mix of fresh capital and secondary share sales, though valuation talks remain at a preliminary stage.
Blue Tokai expects its revenue to grow over 50% to ₹8 billion this financial year, building on nearly seven-fold growth over the past four years, the report added. The company, backed by investors including Verlinvest, is also weighing an IPO within the next five to seven years, and intends to raise an additional ₹1.5 billion before it begins funding expansion through internal accruals.
Blue Tokai is preparing to open its first overseas outlet in Dubai next week, even as it contends with rising coffee prices, supply chain pressures, and increasing costs tied to real estate and staffing. Chitharanjan said the company is targeting profitability by March 2028, noting that a denser network of stores would help drive better operating efficiency.
"The advantage of coffee is that it's a very habitual thing," he reportedly said. He added that one of the reasons that people come to the coffee chain is because they like the quality of the core beverage that it has and that's kind of what they stick to.
