India's cafés have found another way to make customers spend more on chai and coffee. Chaayos has partnered with Mille to add 10g of fermented yeast protein to its masala chai, priced at ₹189. Starbucks offers protein cold foam through SuperYou for ₹50 extra. Barista has joined hands with Yoga Bar, while abcoffee and Subko have tied up with Only What's Needed and The Whole Truth.

For cafés, the attraction is simple. Rents and staff are expensive, and raising prices on regular drinks isn't easy. Tata Starbucks recorded ₹1,367 crore in FY26 revenue and still made a loss. Chaayos lost ₹25.4 crore on ₹310.6 crore of operating revenue in FY25. Adding protein lets them increase the bill without opening another store or finding another customer.

Consider the maths. Suppose a café charges ₹50 extra for protein. If the ingredient costs ₹18 and preparation takes another ₹5, it could retain around ₹25 per cup after GST, before fixed costs. Across 500 outlets selling ten protein upgrades daily, that means roughly ₹9 crore in additional annual sales and ₹4.5 crore left towards operating costs. These are estimates, not reported margins, but they explain the interest. Barista wants protein drinks to account for 10% of its beverage portfolio within two years.

Protein brands get something different: a chance to reach customers without paying for every click or convincing someone to buy an expensive tub of powder. Someone who would never order a supplement online might pay a little extra to try it in a familiar drink. If they like it, that trial could turn into repeat orders or purchases outside the café.

In the US, Starbucks has introduced protein drinks containing up to 36g, and management says customers are returning for them. Still, India has a price problem. Someone who wants 25-30g of protein can usually get it more cheaply from a regular supplement. Ten grams in chai is a convenient extra, not a replacement.

We suspect protein chai and coffee will stay on premium menus. But cafés could end up benefiting more than their partners. Once customers start asking for protein coffee routinely, chains can bargain with suppliers or switch to cheaper ones. People will remember where they bought their chai. Whether they remember whose protein went into it is another matter.

Let’s go through what else is happening in Indian startup world - Grab your simmering cup of StartupChai.in and unwind with our hand-brewed memes.

Jio Platforms has set its IPO price band at Rs 1,065-1,119 per share. The fresh issue of up to 27 Cr shares could raise Rs 30,213 Cr at the upper end and value the company at about Rs 10.3 lakh Cr.

The offer opens on October 21 and closes on October 23, with anchor bidding on October 19.

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Groww’s active clients rose to 1.34 Cr in September, taking its market share to 29.16%, while Angel One added nearly 37,000 clients.

Despite falling markets, India’s stockbrokers collectively gained 1.6 Lakh active clients to reach 4.61 Cr.

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The Centre is preparing a data center policy amid growing concerns over the sector’s rising power consumption.

The move comes as protests against Amazon and Google projects raise questions over electricity bills, water use, land and noise pollution.

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Astra Studios and VerSe Innovation have launched the Astra-Spark Alliance, combining AstraLabs with VerSe's SparkStation AI Content Operating System.

The platform will cover scripting, storyboarding, casting, asset generation, editing, rendering and distribution.

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Nexedge Capital has appointed former Avendus Wealth MD and CEO Apurva Sahijwani as co-founder.

Sahijwani brings more than 28 years of private-banking and wealth-management experience, including leadership roles at Axis Bank and other financial institutions.

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Infotech has acquired Zluri in its first acquisition in 30 years. Zluri will continue as a standalone division while retaining its product and core engineering teams in Bengaluru.

The deal adds application discovery and identity-governance capabilities to Infotech's CIO Analytics platform.

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