Having a cup of coffee is always a good idea and it’s even better when it’s safe for you as well as the environment. And to make your day even more brew-tiful, Bharat Sethi, the founder and CEO of Rage Coffee came up with the world’s first plant-based coffee that has become a popular brand among coffee lovers.
Bharat Sethi had a knack for business from a very young age and always wanted to be his own boss but his road to success was not quite linear. After completing his Bachelor’s from Delhi University in Economics he joined HDFC as a Project Trainee and thereafter worked at a few more places where he gained his experience on how to run accompany it was in 2012 that he started his own venture called Poster Gully, a fast-growing online platform powered by thousands of artists and designer enabling them, through automated self-serving technology, to contribute and merchandise unique designs for products for Indian and global customers. He worked as the founder and CEO for 4years. He went to Cornell University to get a specialized degree in Macroeconomics, markets.
In 2016, he founded iDecorama which is a visually driven B2B eCommerce marketplace using UGC and image recognition tech to help design, architecture, and construction professionals discover and shop for over 75,000 products. And invested in various brands like DrinkPrime, Master Chow, Jimmy’s Cocktails and others.
In 2018, his brainchild, RAGE Coffee was born. The brand’s aim was to create coffee experience like never before, with a variety of flavours, and attractive packaging, Rage is one of the fastest-growing D2C brands. It uses handpicked beans from plantations in Ethiopia and India, bringing the craft coffee experience to the instant and health-aware generation.
According to World Coffee Portal, Rage Coffee has been planning to scale production since a $5 million fundraising round in 2021, with the building of the Haryana facility set to begin in October 2021. Sixth Sense Ventures spearheaded the investment, which will also be used for new product releases, marketing, and extending the brand’s online and offline presence.
In an exclusive with ET Retail in 2022, Bharat said, Bharat Sethi, founder and CEO of the company said, “Currently, we are present in more than 2500 stores across India and will reach about 10,000 point-of-sale retail touchpoints by the end of this year.”
According to Inc42, Rage Coffee gained more than 5x revenue in a year, from Rs 4.5 Cr in FY21 to Rs 23.5 Cr in FY22. And it targets Rs 92 Cr in revenue in FY23 and planned to double down on its physical presence to reach more than 10K offline stores by March 2023.
Rage expanded their range of products in 2023 as they introduced coffee in cans that is easy to sip on as you go about your day. In an exclusive with Indian retailer, Bharat said, “Rage Coffee has always stuck to our maverick mindset where the innovation of caffeine products has been our central stance. As our everyday lives become more hectic, we thought of bringing your daily dose of caffeine in a ready-to-drink avatar. To ensure your caffeine cravings never go unattended, the three delectable Rage ready-to-drink cold coffees will be available across all channels by the end of April. I hope that everyone at work can now get a refreshing recharge with Rage’s ready-to-drink coffee.”
The brand’s growth has been skyrocketing as the 34-year-old CEO recently took it to his LinkedIn to talk about another major milestone for the brand as they unveiled a plant in Manesar, “Super thrilled to announce the start of official production at our IMT Manesar plant that was commissioned last year. This marks a major milestone in our goal to be at the forefront of innovation in all form factors of coffee related R&D in the country.”
With Virat Kohli as the face of the brand, Rage has made exceptional progress in the startup market and is slowly emerging as a competitor to the top players like Bru and Nesacfe.
