From startup ideas on CCD napkins to coffee dates: R Ashwin, Innoz boss remember VG Siddhartha's legacy

Siddhartha was born in 1960 to coffee plantation owner Gangaiah Hegde in Chikkamagalur, Karnataka (his family has been in the coffee business for almost 130 years). Growing up in the district known for its coffee estates, the coffee baron completed his master's degree from Mangalore University.

During the early '90s, as a budding entrepreneur, he tied the knot with Malavika Hegde, the daughter of former Chief Minister of Karnataka, Indian Minister for External Affairs and Governor of Maharashtra, S.M. Krishna. They had two sons, Ishan and Amarthya.

He began his career at the age of 24 as a management trainee with JM Financial Limited in Mumbai, where he worked from 1983 to '84. In the mid '80s, he invested his earnings in the stock market on Chikkamagaluru's coffee plantations, and in 1984, bought an investment banking and brokering firm, Sivan Securities - that was later renamed to Way2Wealth Securities Ltd.

A few years later, using the money given to him by his father as capital, he bought a coffee unit in Hassan, and founded Amalgamated Bean Company Trading in 1993. Two years later, it became India’s largest green coffee exporter. Siddhartha grew coffee, sold and exported tonnes of it, earning millions from the business. The owner of 12,000 acres of coffee plantation, he also had 200 exclusive retail outlets selling his Coffee Day powder all over South India.

In 1996, he set up his first coffee outlet, naming it Café Coffee Day. The first CCD opened its doors at Brigade Road in Bengaluru.

Twenty-three years later, the brand now runs over 1700 outlets, making CCD the country's largest retail coffee chain. It also operates cafes in Austria, Malaysia, and Egypt.

With a burgeoning business to bank on, Siddhartha earned a spot on the 2014 Forbes India's Rich list. However, a year later, he dropped off.

2017 proved to be the start of a professionally difficult time for Siddhartha, who was then also attending to his 94-year-old father at the time. The coffee tycoon found himself caught in the middle of a tax evasion case. 20 properties owned by him, in Bengaluru, Chennai, Chikkamagaluru and Mumbai, were subjected to a raid by the income tax department.