Every coffee chain today is chasing experience with event nights, open mics, community tables and Instagrammable corners. But tucked away in cities like Jaipur, a revolution has been brewing.
Nothing Before Coffee (NBC), a neighbourhood café chain, is making its mark with its pocket-friendly menus, quicker service and a space where customers feel right at home and become repeat consumers.
NBC was born of this idea of a shift away from premium exclusivity to everyday accessibility, especially beyond metros, where customers increasingly seek quality without burning a hole into their pockets.
1 April 2026
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Set up in 2017 by four childhood friends—Akshay Kedia, Ankesh Jain, Anand Jain and Shubham Bhandari—NBC is now changing the way Tier-II and -III cities experience café culture. High-quality coffee at an affordable price has remained a central theme for NBC. At a time when premium coffee chains across the country charge more than double, NBC offered a cappuccino for around ₹70. The idea was to strike the right balance between quality and affordability.
Beyond Rajasthan
Growth followed steadily. Within a few years, NBC expanded across Rajasthan, opening outlets in Ajmer, Kota and Jodhpur. After opening their ninth outlet, the founders had to take an important call: should they enter metropolitan cities or continue focusing on smaller markets?
They chose the latter. “We are extremely bullish on India’s growth potential, particularly in underpenetrated markets,” says co-founder and chief executive Ankesh Jain.
The reasoning was simple but strategic. Tier-I cities were already crowded with established coffee chains. However, Tier-II and -III cities had the same demand but lacked organised players.
The founders saw a gap—a large, underserved audience that wanted quality coffee without paying premium prices. “Currently, our focus is on strengthening and scaling within the Indian market,” says Ankesh.
NBC's first move outside Rajasthan came in 2021, post-pandemic, when they entered Madhya Pradesh. But it still maintained its focus on emerging cities rather than metros.
Over time, NBC developed a strong product identity. While it offered a wide variety of beverages, from cappuccinos and lattes to iced teas and mocktails, their standout category is “shakes” or “frappy.” This thick, indulgent cold coffee drink is their hero product now.
Over time, NBC’s menu expanded to over 110 items, including desserts and food options. Maintaining consistency at scale has been a deliberate effort. “Centralised procurement through a main warehouse supplying pan-India outlets ensures consistency,” says co-founder and chief procurement officer Bhandari. Strong vendor partnerships and rigorous quality checks have allowed NBC to keep prices affordable.
Expansion Strategy
As the brand grew, so did its presence. By 2023, NBC began testing metro markets like Delhi NCR, Bengaluru and Pune. While the expansion in metros was cautious, the results were encouraging.
Today, NBC operates over 115 outlets, with a mix of company-owned and franchise stores. Of these, nearly 50 outlets are franchise-driven, a model that helped accelerate growth in the early years.
The company employs over 850 people, with each outlet typically staffed by 9–10 employees.
For co-founder and chief marketing officer Kedia, one of the most important aspects of the business is employment generation. The company hires individuals with basic qualifications and provides them with training and growth opportunities across departments like operations, marketing and finance. Many employees have been with the company since its early days, growing alongside the brand.
That focus on people, in fact, has been central to scaling the brand. “Critical growth happens when your ‘training culture’ becomes so strong that quality becomes an automated reflex, not a supervised task,” says co-founder and chief operating officer Anand Jain.
Of course, the journey hasn’t been without challenges. One of the biggest hurdles has been managing human resources in a high-attrition sector. Finding, training and retaining the right talent requires constant effort. But the founders believe that building a strong team is essential for long-term success.
Another challenge is staying competitive in a market that is attracting a lot of new players. While NBC doesn’t see premium chains as direct competitors due to pricing differences, it constantly competes with local cafés and emerging brands. The key, according to Kedia, is consistency.
As for investor interest, NBC raised $2.3mn in a pre-Series A funding round led by venture-capital firm Prath Ventures in 2025.
This year, it secured ₹3.7cr in on-air funding commitments during its appearance on the start-up reality show Bharat Ke Super Founders.
The company has outlined an ambitious expansion strategy: to reach 160 stores by the end of this year and 400 stores by 2028.
In many ways, NBC represents a shift in India’s start-up landscape. It shows that innovation and ambition are no longer limited to big cities. Smaller towns are not just nodes of the Indian market, they are starting points.
