Cakelicious, one of the most exciting bakeries in Kolkata, was founded in 2020 by Duriya and Fatema Barodawala, both natives of the city. Fatema used to bake cakes at home and enjoyed making them for her loved ones. However, she decided to turn her passion into a career after ending an unhealthy relationship during the COVID-19 pandemic. With her mother, Duriya, who worked as a head chef, they started working as technicians. Fatema is qualified, with a degree in computer applications, and she spent six months working for Wipro.
The business started as a humble home bakery, and their only motivation for starting it amidst the lockdown was to keep themselves busy. However, delivering cakes was a hassle, as three out of five deliveries would be damaged. This made them realize that something had to be done since home deliveries were becoming easy for every product, from groceries to roses to food. That’s when they came up with the idea of making cake tubs – cakes inside a box that made them spill-proof, handy, and easier to consume.
The idea became an instant hit, and their first significant order for cake tubs was for a little boy’s first Zoom birthday party, where 80 people were to be a part of it from their homes.
The deliveries were done smoothly, and everyone received their cakes unspoiled, on time, and fresh. They started to pitch their idea to corporates as an alternative to traditional mithai boxes to send out to their customers during festivals and birthdays. While most offices took it up as an innovation and trusted the idea, a lot of these meetings were not in their favour. The initial struggle was that people were uncomfortable shifting from a traditional round cake to something inside a box.
However, they kept pitching their innovation and ended up participating in Shark Tank India Season 2. Pitching in front of the sharks was as smooth as pitching in front of any business owner. They were warm, welcoming, and all ears to what they had to say. They pitched around 25 lahks for a 5% equity valuation of 5 crores.
According to Shark Tank data, they made sales worth two lakhs in July, two lakhs in August, and three lakhs in September. At 350, their best-selling cake has a gross profit margin of 60% and a net profit margin of 40%. Last month, they generated a profit of $80,000, and they are one of the best-selling cake tubs. According to the founder of Cakelicious, they did 30,000 on the day the show aired, and they closed sales of up to 2 lakhs in the first week of the airing on 17th February.
The guidance of Amit Jain from Cardekho helped shape the future of Cakelicious. His constant guidance and market research helped them tap pan-Indian markets. They are looking at having 100 franchises in the next three years across India.
