new delhi jul 31 he wanted to be an investment banker and had little interest in his familys coffee business but a chat with the owners of german coffee chain tchibo got v g siddhartha to set up the indian rival of starbucks before debt and tax woes allegedly led him to end his life siddhartha the founder of indias biggest coffee chain cafe coffee day was confirmed dead on wednesday days after he went missing a purported letter written by him indicated that pressure from banks investor and tax authorities drove him to end it coming from a family that has a 140year history of growing coffee siddhartha around 60 initially dabbled in stock trading and wanted to work as an investment banker in mumbai after completing his masters degree in economics from mangalore university in 1984 he launched his own investment and venture capital firm sivan securities in bangalore and began investing the profits from his startup to buy coffee plantations in karnatakas chikmagalur district around this time he also began taking interest in his familys coffee business in 1993 he set up a coffee trading company called amalgamated bean company abc with an annual turnover of over rs 6 crore and over the years it increased to over rs 2500 crore inspired by a chat with the owners of tchibo a german coffee chain siddhartha decided to open his own chain of cafes in a country that had no formative cultural grounding in cappuccinos he opened cafe coffee days first outlet on bangalores upscale brigade road in 1994 with a tag line a lot can happen over a cup of coffee its now the largest chain of coffee shops in india a nation of tea drinkers with 1750 cafes in more than 200 cities including outlets in prague vienna and kuala lumpur coffee day went public in 2015 siddhartha currently has 200 exclusive retail outlets selling his brand of coffee day powder all over south india abc is also indias largest exporter of green coffee expanding his business portfolio siddhartha ventured into it sector and founded global technology ventures ltd that identifies invests and mentors technology companies he also entered the financial sector with investment firm sivan securities private ltd the company has three subsidiaries chetan wood processing pvt ltd hospitality business barefoot resorts and timber trading dark forest furniture company in 1999 siddhartha was roped in by it veteran ashok soota when subroto bagchi rostow ravanan and kk natarajan were putting together it firm mindtree he was once the largest shareholder of mindtree but decided to cash out in march this year he sold out his 2041 per cent stake in mindtree to larsen toubro lt making close to rs 2858 crores profit that deal helped him repay his debt of about rs 2900 crore soninlaw of former karnataka chief minister sm krishna siddhartha found himself in trouble in september 2017 when the income tax it department conducted raids at over 20