Happy Bday Dad, and Vahdam Teas!

We turn 3 today!

Yes! All of you who have become a part of this exuberant family, thank you. With your loyalty towards our products, your love towards this humble brand and the happiness that we share over a cup of our tea, this means the world to me.

For those of you who have been cognizant of our journey or those who have recently joined our family, I should tell you that “VAHDAM” is a reverse anagram of my father’s first name “MADHAV”.

I chose 28th of April to be VAHDAM’s Founder’s Day as it sits with my father’s birthday. And yes, he turned 60 today :) Every time when I step into another year of steering the brand, I take this day to thank my father for inspiring me to curate VAHDAM.

Since 2015, Vahdam has come a long way. I was 23 when I started, with no idea of how to build a business. Just a vision to make available garden fresh teas to discerning customers around the world.

Its been a spectacular journey. In just 3 years, we have just shipped millions of cups of tea to consumers in over 83 countries. VAHDAM has also managed to raise more than $2 Million in funding which helps us to visualize feasible innovations and to bring you the best of these teas and to also ensure that our tea-growers have a sustainable source of income which takes care of their families.

This year, I also got a chance to represent Vahdam Teas in the Forbes 30 under 30 Asia list and was invited as a speaker at the Harvard Business School, earlier this year. And ofcourse, we were covered by global publications throughout the year.

I wish to say that this is simply the beginning to a colossal journey to build India’s first global premium tea brand & and bring about a real difference to a lot of lives in India. To further stress on the last point, this Founder’s Day is much noteworthy and special to us for another marvelous reason!

Introducing TEAch Me, Vahdam Teas CSR Initiative

On VAHDAM’s 3rd Founder’s Day, I wish to announce our much-awaited social initiative, ‘TEAch Me’. Under this initiative, we pledge to redirect 1% of our revenue towards the education of our tea-growers’ children.

I have always believed that a home-grown brand like VAHDAM can empower the entire India tea industry on a macro basis. However, we are very passionate to work everyday on a real micro issues. And hence, “TEAch Me”.

To give a little brief, under the Right to Education Act in India, children everywhere have the right to free education in public schools from the age of 6 till the age of 14. However, once they cross 14 years of age-the responsibility of giving them a quality higher secondary education befalls on the parents. The option then available is sending their children to private schools, which often is a non-sustainable exercise and a considerable expense for a tea-grower’s family. As a result of this, the children grow up with very limited options for future employment.

And via ‘TEAch Me’ social campaign, we shall be funding the higher education for these children from the age of 14 until the time they acquire a desired, stable form of employment.

The vision that led to the curation of the TEA-ch ME social initiative was to find ways to bring in a sustainable improvement in the lives of our plantation workers and their families. Every parent wishes for their progeny to have a better future than they did and VAHDAM wishes to honor this aspiration.

I also promise to keep you updated with the progress of this campaign and shall make sure that all of you will be able to notice the difference you make when you decide to buy any of VAHDAM’s products.

And hopefully, you’ll meet the young students, your young students soon :)

With this I also shall strive to uphold the impeccable standards of quality at VAHDAM, the promise of bringing garden-fresh teas to your cup in the least possible time, to apologetically learn from our mistakes and to continue to bring renewed meaning to our relationship with you.

I, on behalf of everyone here at Vahdam Teas, wish to thank you from the bottom of my heart for making this day possible.

I owe it to you all.

And, Happy Birthday Dad :)