Fresh Brew, Big Ambitions

From startups to stores, Beanly's Samayesh Khanna and Rahul Jain elevate India's coffee culture by making freshly brewed coffee a daily delight

- Reema Bhaduri

IN A NATION steeped in ‘chai’ traditions, two young entrepreneurs, Samayesh Khanna and Rahul Jain, Co-founders of Beanly, get on a mission to make freshly brewed coffee accessible to India’s vast market. Their ambitious vision of making freshly brewed coffee an everyday beverage for millions of Indians represents more than just a business endeavour. It’s a cultural shift in the making, one cup at a time.

Founded in 2019, Beanly began with a simple yet ambitious goal: to change how Indians perceive and consume freshly brewed coffee. “The largest problem statement in India that we saw was there were roasters cropping up left, right and centre. But nobody was addressing this one problem of how to make freshly brewed coffee easily accessible,” Khanna recalls.

Their solution? The easy-pour coffee bag, a product that later became their signature offering and attracted the attention of established coffee brands. “We created a product which revolutionised the way the Indian market perceived freshly brewed coffee,” Khanna states.

However, like many startups, Beanly’s early days were marked by financial constraints. This led the duo to pivot towards a B2B model, manufacturing for prominent names in the Indian coffee industry. “Because of the lack of funds, a large part of our business was B2B first. We were manufacturing for the likes of Blue Tokai, Third Wave Coffee -- anybody in the coffee industry who came to build a bean-to-cup at-home product with us,” Khanna admits.