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Hasan Minhaj didn’t necessarily plan to add investor to his already burgeoning resume. Instead, the opportunity presented itself in a cup of smooth, spicy chai.
Nine months after his first sip of the Kolkata Chai Co.’s signature blend, the Daily Show alumni has gone from a devoted customer to the brand’s second-largest stakeholder and business partner, with an undisclosed but significant investment.
Sitting down with ADWEEK, he was crystal clear this wasn’t another perfunctory celebrity ambassadorship but rather an opportunity to bring South Asian culture into the mainstream and lean on his storytelling chops to give chai its “matcha moment.”
“There’s a groundswell of love for the company, the brand, the community that they’ve built that spoke to me,” he said. “Not only do I want to be a part of this… I believe in the founders, I want to put skin in the game and be part of it,” he said.
The brainwave of brothers Ayan and Ani Sanyal, Kolkata Chai started life as a café in New York’s East Village in 2019. The hotspot had a single mission: to serve up authentic Indian masala chai to Americans in all its steaming, aromatic glory. It offered an antithesis to what it described as the “bastardized” version sold by corporate coffee chains.
By 2022 the startup had secured $1 million in funding. Marketing rooted in community and innovation — soft serve chai ice cream giveaways, a collaboration with buzzy New York eatery 7th Street Burger, having Hasan serve drinks at its Williamsburg opening in May — has driven growth quickly.
It now counts three locations across New York and operates a flourishing online business, where patrons can buy its signature mix, gift boxes, and recipes.
The latter accounts for the bulk of its revenues, and as it plots its it’s eyeing a broader product range and a deeper move into the CPG space.
Friends recommended Minhaj check out the brand’s eponymous hangout for years. However, between writing and filming two Netflix specials (the third is pending), securing a role in the film It Ends With Us alongside Blake Lively, and co-founding production company 186K Films, he never quite made it.
When his wife walked into their Manhattan apartment in January with a Kolkata Chai Co. starter kit Minhaj had a mug, “fell in love with it,” immediately found Ani’s number online and quickly arranged a “meet-cute.”