Looking for a fearless, original and revolutionary coffee company serving delicious and healthy products? Rage Coffee, a new-age brand backed by Indian cricketer Virat Kohli, offers coffees made using 100% Arabica beans and infused with vitamins derived completely from plant
Bharat Sethi, founder and CEO of Rage Coffee is a serial entrepreneur and an alumnus of Delhi University where he pursued Economic Honors in 2008-11. Due to his stellar academic performance and leadership qualities, he was handpicked to be a part of various delegations to prestigious international forums and summits. It was during this time that he found his calling as an entrepreneur. He then started on a journey that went on to involve multiple successful ventures. For instance, in 2012, he started PosterGully, an online platform for artists and designers to create, showcase and sell their work. The start-up raised more than $200,000 from well-known angel investors and later, was acquired by them in 2016. Sethi then focused on iDecorama (a visually-driven B2B e-commerce marketplace for hoteliers, designers and architects among others), of which he was the co-founder and CEO. His leadership helped the start-up receive the backing of the promoters of ABEC, which is the organiser of ACETECH, India’s largest and the world’s third-largest exhibition related to architecture, design, building materials and construction.
In 2018, Sethi started Swmabhan Commerce Pvt Ltd, which is the parent company of Rage Coffee. The company focuses on creating digitally native vertical brands to explore the gargantuan opportunities in the FMCG sector. Sethi envisions increasing the company’s ARR to Rs. 500 crore by 2025. “Thanks to our data-driven approach, direct connect with customers and deep market research, we know that our products address people’s need for an aspirational lifestyle coffee brand,” shares Sethi
Along the way
Ask Sethi about Rage Coffee and he says with pride that it is a fearless, original and revolutionary coffee brand serving delicious and healthy products. “Our coffees have no added sugar, colour, preservative or any chemical additive. While a typical coffee takes 6 to 18 months before reaching an end-consumer, our coffees are ready to drink within a week. All our products are gluten-free, vegan-friendly, and nature-considerate,” adds Sethi. The brand began by first launching products in the favoured coffee category, such as Rage Coffee Original, Irish Hazelnut, Crème Caramel, Sparky Orange, Mint Mocha, Dark Chocolate and more. “We have recently launched a drip bags range, freshly roasted whole beans coffee, ground coffee, and liquid coffee, and have more new products coming up very soon,” shares Sethi
As a brand, Rage Coffee is propelled by a D2C mindset—it is, in fact, in the brand’s DNA. The multifaceted nature of the D2C model offers Rage Coffee the opportunity to make better decisions as a brand. “It has strengthened us in all aspects, including marketing, product development, customer support, and their feedback. It has assisted us in creating a bond with customers as all the processes are transparent in a D2C space. It helps us create better products for customers and stay ahead of the curve. It does not limit us in distributing products through e-commerce channels only; we are now focused on building an omnichannel business, where the majority of our revenues will come in from offline, wholesale channels,” says Sethi
Looking to the future
Since its inception in 2018, Rage Coffee has expanded its offline network to 15 super stockists, 150 distributors, and 5 clearing and forwarding agents (CFAs), and covered over 5,000 offline touchpoints across India. Around 50% of the brand’s sales come from these touchpoints, while the remaining 50% of sales are generated from its own website, e-commerce platforms including Amazon and Flipkart, and hyperlocal delivery apps such as Swiggy Instamart and Blinkit. Rage Coffee is planning to expand its online presence and offline footprint pan-India. “We are aiming to reach 10,000 stores by March 2023,” conveys Sethi.
- Since its inception, Rage Coffee has expanded
its reach to over 5,000 offline stores. - Of the products that the brand has launched, many are a first in the industry, such as sachet shots, liquid coffee and empty drip bags that make ground coffee accessible to customers who do not have coffee-making equipment or machines.
- Rage Coffee has onboarded Indian cricketer Virat Kohli as an investor and brand ambassador.
- The brand recently set up a one-of-its-kind 30,000 sq ft facility at Manesar in Haryana to further improve its order fulfilment and production cycles.
