Vahdam Wins Global SMB of the Year Award

At the recent mega-summit, Amazon Smbhav hosted in New Delhi, VAHDAM TEAS & SUPERFOODS was declared as the Winner of the Global SMB of the Year Award. 

 

BalaSarda, the man behind the award-winning premium Indian Tea & Superfoods brand Vahdam and a fourth-generation Tea entrepreneur, received the prestigious award, from the Founder of Amazon- Jeff Bezos, who had arrived in New Delhi for the summit. 

 

Amazon Smbhav is a maiden mega-summit that brings together micro, small, and medium enterprises together to explore how embracing technology can revolutionize small, evolving businesses. The two-day event held at the JLN stadium in New Delhi aimed at collating diverse perspectives from renowned industry experts, policymakers, new and upcoming change-makers, and also from the Amazon leadership to discuss e-commerce, logistics, payments, technology and digitization, customer service, and modern trade.

 

In the last few years, VAHDAM TEAS, a home-grown premium Tea & Superfoods brand from India has made waves worldwide with its exclusive range of premium Indian Teas, award-winning in-house blends, and dedicated Superfood wellness products. The company has already seen unprecedented growth since its inception, completed three successful rounds of funding, and is the only Indian brand ever to be inducted in the prestigious list of ‘Oprah Winfrey’s Favorite Things’ for 2018 & 2019. 

 

BalaSarda says that as a young, home-grown Indian brand, he is honored to have received this prestigious award from Mr. Jeff Bezos, a man whom he has always looked up to for inspiration. Having grown from a small team of just 25 members to an award-winning Tea & Superfoods company that has a high-end product line, shipping the best quality Indian Tea to customers in more than 93 countries - It all still feels like a dream. He is thankful to Amazon for providing us with a robust platform to maximize their potential and help win in potential global markets, he said.  

A fourth-generation tea entrepreneur, Bala joined his family business of bulk tea export, where he learned that most of the tea being sold across the world shuffle between multiple middlemen like retailers, auctioneers, distributors etc. before reaching the consumer. All this time that the tea sits in unregulated warehouses, it loses its character and flavor. 

 

In addition to this, India despite being the second-largest producer of tea in the world had a debilitating home industry that has been forced to depend only on bulk tea export for its sustainability. These foreign brands keep shifting from one sourcing region to another to compete on price points. This prevents any real value addition to the home industry and millions of farmers keep struggling with low wages and an uncertain future. 

 

In order to change this scenario, Bala launched Vahdam Teas in the year 2015 as a young, passionate home-grown brand. By leveraging technology and by cutting out all middlemen, Bala established the world’s first vertically-integrated company. 

 

To date, Vahdam has shipped more than 100 Million + cups of tea to consumers in more than 93 countries around the world. With expertly curated blends like the latest Turmeric wellness range that got Vahdam Teas to be inducted into the list of Oprah Winfrey’s Favorites for the second time in 2019, the brand has set its footprint as a leading global tea company. In recent accomplishments, Vahdam Teas was also chosen by famed pop-star Mariah Carey to be part of her Amazon gifting guide for 2019. 

 

Vahdam’s line of premium single-estate blends, herbal tisanes, and gifts have won several esteemed awards at the Global Tea Championship, Great Taste Awards, SOFI ( Specialty Food Association, USA) Awards etc. With more than 70% of its business catering to the USA, UK, and Europe; the brand has recently entered the Indian scene. Vahdam is amidst an aggressive launch strategy in India with plans to bring more tailored teas and superfoods that can effectively cater to the Indian populace.