Vahdam® India appoints Ketan Desai as Chief Tea Educator & Sustainability Officer

Global wellness brand, VAHDAM® India, has hired ex-tea entrepreneur Ketan Desai as its Chief Tea Educator & Sustainability Officer. Desai has also invested an undisclosed amount in VAHDAM® India, as a mark of his conviction in the brand.
He comes comes with an experience of over 25 glorious years and has previously started and successfully run multiple tea ventures in the past. He is also a seasoned tea taster. Prior to joining VAHDAM®, Desai has been a tea entrepreneur twice before. He started TeaAuction.com – world’s first B2B Tea Auction portal and launched a range of Tea Boutiques by the name of CHA. He also recently co-founded a sports apparel company DFY.
Commenting on Desai’s joining, Bala Sarda, Founder & CEO of VAHDAM India said, “We are very excited to see Ketan join us in our journey of creating India’s first global tea and wellness
brand. His personal investment in the brand is also a strong conviction in our journey and very humbling given his strong background and decades of experience in the tea industry. I am
inspired and motivated by his commitment to VAHDAM and look forward to learning from his experience. We are building a strong executive team for the next stage of growth and strengthen the brand presence globally.”
“The biggest reason for me to invest and join VAHDAM was Bala’s audacity and passion to create a truly global tea-brand that is proudly Indian at heart and global in spirit. Within just 5 years, VAHDAM has been able to achieve what no other Indian brand in any product category has been able to do. The other aspect about VAHDAM that impressed me was the larger purpose and philosophy: Do Good By Doing Good. I am convinced that in the next few years, VAHDAM will redefine what new India’s entrepreneurs can dream and achieve!” said Desai.
The company has till date raised over US$17 Million funding from India’s top investors including VCs like Fireside Ventures, Sixth Sense Ventures, Mankind Pharma, SAR Group, Urmin Group, Chona Family and entrepreneurs like Kris Gopalkrishnan (Infosys Founder), Pankaj Chaddha (Zomato Founder), Amrish Rau (PayU Founder) amongst others.
Founded in 2015 by Bala Sarda, the brand is on a run rate to do 150 crores in Revenue in the current fiscal 2020-2021 and is one of the fastest growing consumer brands from India to reach this scale.
The company which gets ~95% of its sales online primarily through its websites and marketplaces.
Founded in 2015 by Bala Sarda, VAHDAM® Teas is building India’s maiden home-grown global tea brand, taking India’s finest teas and superfoods to consumers worldwide under a home-grown label. It was recently awarded the ‘Global SMB of the year’ by Jeff Bezos in his visit to India.