Espresso growth: Coffee tech startups brew a success story

Firms tap equipment, service and subscriptions as cafe culture expands

- S SHANTHI

INDIA'S COFFEE BOOM is usually measured in the number of shiny new cafes and the rise of specialty roasters, but behind the swirl of latte art, the real adrenaline shot is coming from the companies supplying the shiny, high-tech beasts behind the counter.

As café culture spreads and home brewing graduates from instant coffee to precision pour-overs, startups selling coffee machines and related services are scaling up briskly.

The domestic coffee machine market was valued at around $194 million in 2024, and industry executives say demand is no longer confined to café chains. Offices, hotels, restaurants and an increasingly discerning band of home brewers are all lining up for better coffee and the machines that make it possible.

These startups earn not just by selling or distributing machines—whether their own or sourced from global manufacturers—but also by layering services on top. Installation, barista training, maintenance and technical support are often bundled into subscription-style offerings. In other words, the humble espresso machine is slowly morphing into a recurring-revenue engine.

“Technology is changing the category,” Sharad Bansal, co-founder of Warmup Ventures, told FE. Modern coffee machines are less appliance and more connected gadget, with app-based controls, personalised brewing settings and even automated reorders for beans or filters. “What looks like a hardware sale becomes a recurring revenue model,” he said.