SLAY Coffee was launched as India's first cloud coffee brand. It was a coffee chain using premium beans from Chikmagalur and built on both delivery and Grab&Go models, but the operating company, DropKaffe Food and Beverages, is in liquidation proceedings, and revenue for FY2025 (fiscal year ended March 2025) shrank 70% year on year to ₹2.24 crore.
| Legal name | SLAY Coffee (DropKaffe Pvt Ltd) |
|---|---|
| Year founded | 2019 |
| Headquarters | Bengaluru (Karnataka) |
| Founder | Chaitanya Chitta, Lakshmi Dasaka |
| Number of stores | More than 100 outlets at its peak (the operating company is now in liquidation proceedings) |
| Official website | The official site cannot be confirmed at present (the domain has changed to a page offering it for sale) |
Chaitanya Chitta and Lakshmi Dasaka founded it in 2019. It began by delivering coffee from cloud kitchens without storefronts and grew on at-home demand during the pandemic. It later expanded into physical Grab&Go outlets, exceeding 100 locations at its peak.
The growth did not last. Revenue for FY2025 (fiscal year ended March 2025) shrank 70% year on year to ₹2.24 crore, and the operating company, DropKaffe Food and Beverages, has entered liquidation proceedings. The domain of its official site has now changed to a domain sale page.
Coffee built around delivery carries lighter fixed costs because there are no storefronts. On the other hand, delivery app commissions and the cost of discounts rise in step with revenue. Once at-home demand receded, the business had to compete on price on the same ground as physical cafés, and that is what led to this outcome.
It used beans sourced from an award-winning estate in Chikmagalur with more than a century of history. The lineup was varied, including SLAY X (billed as India's strongest coffee) and vegan and low-calorie options. Its own leak-proof, temperature-controlled container, the SLAY Case 1.0, was used to keep quality intact through delivery.
-YourStory – SLAY Coffee growth
- SLAY Coffee official
MORE
Kwality Wall's (India) | HUL separated frozen from ambient distributionCoffee Day Enterprises (Cafe Coffee Day) | The pioneer of Indian cafés, now smallerEverest Food Products | 42 spice blends, and a 2024 recallCG Foods India | Sidestepped Maggi with instant noodles eaten without boilingVeeba | Brought foodservice-grade quality control straight into retailUdaan | The largest B2B e-commerce platform supplying small shopsSOJAPAN
We support Japanese companies entering India, from market research through local partner development, test sales, and import.