Cafe Coffee Day, India's biggest coffee chain, collapsed under debt after founder's death

Café Coffee Day was founded in 1996 by V. G. Siddhartha in Bengaluru and grew to become India's largest coffee chain, operating nearly 1,700 cafés, 500 kiosks, and 47,500 vending machines across the country. The parent company Coffee Day Enterprises also owned a technology park, coffee plantations, and resorts — a sprawling conglomerate financed largely through debt.

Siddhartha had borrowed aggressively to fund expansion across coffee, real estate and hospitality. By mid-2019 lenders were pressing for repayment and investors were leaving. He died by suicide on 29 July 2019. In a letter released afterwards he wrote that he had failed to build a profitable business model, and cited pressure from lenders and from the tax authorities.

After his death, Coffee Day Enterprises sold its Global Village Technology Park for ₹2,700 crore to repay debt. The café count shrank from nearly 1,700 to 423 by September 2025. In 2023, IndusInd Bank filed a bankruptcy petition against the company. The case illustrates how debt-fueled expansion without a path to profitability can destroy an entire business.