Young Mountain Tea Raises $1.1M to Create New Indian Tea Region & Launch Tea Bags

Mission-driven tea company Young Mountain Tea (YMT) has secured over $1,100,000 from a wide range of sources to support its mission of working with Himalayan farmers to raise the quality of their tea, so they can earn more and raise the quality of their lives. 

In northern India, YMT has partnered with Himalayan tea farmers in the village of Champawat, 90% of whom are women, to launch their region’s first farmer-owned tea factory. To finance the project, the company secured grant support from USAID and Frontier Co-op, and also has a pending equity investment from Acumen, an institutional impact investor. 

In the US, to grow the market for this factory’s teas, the company just launched its first line of organic, pyramid tea bags made entirely of compostable materials. For the launch, the company completed a convertible note round led by SWAN, a Texas-based angel investor network. In addition, the company secured debt and lines of credit from Oregon CDFIs and Vermont private foundations. 

“We’re simultaneously scaling our impact and our business.” says YMT Founder Raj Vable. “Raising money for two different ventures in parallel was tough. However, we knew we’d have to be creative to attract capital appropriate for each arm of our work. VC funding wouldn’t work for a farmer-owned India factory focused on impact, and grants wouldn’t work for scaling our business, so we had to develop an approach that would bring all stakeholders together. We’re glad to say it worked”