Vikas Khanna Just Put Chef Capital Behind a New York Chai Brand
Bungalow Hospitality Investments’ first check goes to Kolkata Chai Co.; Masala Chai lands on GupShup and Punjab Meet House menus.
- brand
- chai
- funding
- new york
Vikas Khanna just put chef capital behind a New York chai brand.
In late June 2026, Bungalow Hospitality Investments, the new platform Khanna co-founded with restaurateur Jimmy Rizvi, announced its first deal: a strategic investment in Kolkata Chai Co., the New York cafés-and-CPG chai company started in 2019 by brothers Ani and Ayan Sanyal. Money is only half the story. The brand’s Masala Chai also lands on Bungalow Hospitality Management menus across New York, including GupShup and Punjab Meet House, with limited collaborative plates promised for the fall.
The Sanyals grew up outside Boston as first-generation Bengali Americans, visiting Kolkata most summers and watching chai do ordinary social work: stalls, conversations, a cup that is not a sweet latte syrup. Ayan began farmers-market chai before the brothers opened cafés; the company now runs multiple New York rooms and sells blends and concentrates through its own channels and grocery partners. Hasan Minhaj joined as an investor and partner in 2024, another cultural amplifier for a drink U.S. shelves still often flatten.
The shape of the bet is the point. South Asian food headlines in the U.S. often stop at a lease. This one is a shelf and a pour: chef hospitality money into a packaged chai brand that already has cafés, then that chai poured into the same group’s restaurants. Khanna and Rizvi also run Bungalow Foods, their own CPG line. Kolkata Chai is the investment arm’s inaugural check, which Khanna has framed around craft and a personal tie to chai rather than a disclosed dollar figure.
Round size was not published in the press materials we saw. Read it as strategic capital plus menu access, not a Series headline. Confirm current café addresses and retail SKUs on kolkatachai.co before you treat any one store or blend as fixed. This is brand and investment reporting from the June 2026 announcements, not a tasting review of the chai.