Dot Dot Bubble Tea is set for a major push in supermarkets and fast food chains after winning backing from JamJar Investments and a collection of challenger brand founders.
Founder Yan Ying, who appeared on the BBC’s Dragons’ Den last year, created the UK’s first ready-to-drink bubble tea when she launched the business in 2023.
Dot Dot is readying new distribution with Japanese fast food operators Wasabi and Marugame Udon, which will sit alongside listings with Ocado, Selfridges and Harvey Nichols.
The new funding round will help the business expand into more major food retailers as it attempts to take bubble tea into the mainstream.
Ying said consumers were already seeking out bubble tea at more than 2,500 cafés nationwide, but the retail sector remained “largely untapped”.
Dot Dot raised almost £1m to support its expansion, with the round led by JamJar and individual investors from the founding teams of the likes of Little Moons, Tony’s Chocolonely, Wild, Mindful Chef, Moma and The Collective.
“We started with a small bubble tea café in North London, and now we’re manufacturing the UK’s first premium RTD bubble tea from our own brewery,” Ying said.
“The backing from the teams behind Innocent, Little Moons and Tony’s validates what we’ve always believed: bubble tea is ready for the mainstream grocery aisle and QSR providers. We’re now focused on bringing this to the UK’s biggest retailers.”
Dot Dot brews bubble tea – which originates from Taiwan and is a blend of tea, milk, fruit juice and tapioca pearls – at its own facility in east London, which has a scalable production capacity of 120,000 units a week.
Its drinks use natural fruit purée and are brewed from real tea leaves, with the finished range having a 12-month ambient shelf life. It is available in signature glass bottles and 250ml cans, with a rsp of £2.20 to £3.
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