Introduction

Delhi based The Cinnamon Kitchen is a plant based bakery. It is 100% gluten free and PCOS friendly. There is no refined sugar in it. Moreover, it is free of preservatives. Everyone can enjoy a variety of healthful snacks with your family at The Cinnamon Kitchen. Some popular products from The Cinnamon Kitchen are Vegan cheese chips, Apple crumble cake, Oh Fudge, Flourless almond butter cookies, Keto cake, Lemon lavender cookies, Vegan Nutella, etc.

The Cinnamon Kitchen offers tasty, healthy snacks without the use of preservatives. It is also completely gluten-free and free of refined sugar so if a person is confronting Dairy and Gluten Allergy, they have Dairy and Gluten free, Keto and Diabetic Friendly, Gifts, vegan Cakes product variety.

The Cinnamon Kitchen's USP is their distinctive dishes and their mission is to normalise healthy eating rather than make it the exception.

Founder’s Journey of Cinnamon Kitchen

The Cinnamon Kitchen was founded by Businesswoman Priyasha Saluja in 2018. She attended Delhi Public School in Noida for her education. Later, she attended Delhi University's Keshav Mahavidyalaya to earn a Bachelor's degree in business studies (Hons.) (BMS). She also studied at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), where she earned certificates in bargaining and negotiation as well as in general management, business administration, and education. Diversifying her skill set, Priyasha Saluja engaged in short-term certification courses, including Financial Modelling and Advanced Excel, facilitated by EduPristine and certified by BSE.

Priyasha Saluja started her career with Asian Paints in a significant marketing capacity. She started her career in consulting as a Management Trainee at PwC and Zodiac Clothing Co. Ltd. after learning about business strategy.

Priyasha worked as a social media specialist at Dentsu Aegis Network after making a smooth transition to the digital realm. She contributed even more to the advertising sector by working as an account executive at Taproot Dentsu India Communication Private Limited. Later, Priyasha showed off her aptitude for entrepreneurship by starting The Cinnamon Kitchen and demonstrating her love of the culinary arts. She was diagnosed with PCOS as a young teenager. At the time, there was limited knowledge and conversation around PCOS and it’s symptoms. She grew up facing a lot of challenges and shame around her symptoms and health condition.

In 2018, Priyasha started Cinnamon Kitchen as an Instagram page with recipes, healthy eating and lifestyle tips to encourage mindful living. In 2019, Priyasha started a small home kitchen. The realisation that not everyone had the resources, time and inclination to prepare these dawned upon Priyasha and she decided to help others by starting a small home kitchen. In 2020, there was organic increase in following. A small home kitchen started with a handmade logo, small batches made from a tiny corner in the room. The page started attracting a lot of organic celebrity following and extremely regular clients who kept coming back for the quality of products and unique offering. In 2021, the kitchen kept growing organically through word of mouth marketing by extremely loyal customers. Some retailers expressed interest as well and the brand grew multifold. We moved out of a home kitchen into a tiny 1000sq ft facility. In 2022, they outgrew the 1000 sq ft facility in less than 6 months and had to move into a bigger place. We also started delivering throughout the country around this time. In 2023 The Cinnamon Kitchen moved into a full scale commercial facility with over 25 employees, prominent retail partnerships with Blinkit, LeMarche, Amazon and several community partnerships. The brand is still growing multifold and vows to preserve it’s essence, remember where it came from and it’s promise of delivering only the best.

The founder of The Cinnamon Kitchen, Priyasha Saluja has maintained the health and taste aspect of its products so beautifully that it is also loved by many celebrities including Namita Dubey, Malaika Arora, Simran Khosla, etc.

Business Model of Cinnamon Kitchen

The Cinnamon Kitchen is offering multi-category artisanal bakery products. The product catalog includes cookies, cakes, granola, spreads, crackers, and more. It claims to offer PCOS-friendly, plant-based, vegan & cruelty-free, and gluten-free products made by chefs in small batches.

2019 saw the opening of The Cinnamon Kitchen, which operates in two categories: packaged snacks and fresh cakes and bakery. Fresh cakes account for 25% of their revenue; packaged items make up the remaining 25%. The company offered 45 SKUs, including boxed chocolates. Their products retail for about ₹70, with vegan Nutella costing ₹550. They have a 15-day shelf life.

The Cinnamon Kitchen serves in the B2C space in the Retail, Food and Agriculture Tech market segments.

Cinnamon Kitchen Revenue

Revenue for the Cinnamon Kitchen was ₹1.4 Lakhs in the first fiscal year (FY19–20), and in FY20–21, it grew at a rate of more than 700% to ₹12.5 Lakhs. The company ended FY22-23 with ₹82 lakhs, having made ₹25 lakhs in FY21-22. Since they began performance marketing, they anticipate generating ₹6 crores in FY23–24, with ₹1.3 crores in the first 6 months of the year till September 2023. Their profit margin is at 30%.

Notably, The Cinnamon Kitchen was completely bootstrapped at the time of the pitch. The founder shared that the company started with only ₹50,000, and she grew this business without any additional funding up to this stage.

Shark Tank India Pitch & Funding Deal

Priyasha sought an investment of ₹60 Lakhs in exchange for 2% of the company, valuing her business at ₹30 Crores.

Because of the fierce competition and the little size of the market for healthy snacks, Namita Thapar, (Executive Director, Emcure Pharma Limited) was the first Shark to choose to stay out of deal. Vineeta Singh, (Co-Founder & CEO, Sugar Cosmetics) was the first Shark to make an offer, valuing the company at ₹6 crores and offering ₹60 lakhs for 10%. She went on to say that since these kinds of enterprises are typically not investable, this is simply a wager on the entrepreneur. A conflict of interest between Zomato and Blinkit led Deepinder Goyal (Co-founder & CEO, Zomato) to withdraw, prohibiting him from making investments in bakeries, restaurants, and direct-to-consumer firms.

Anupam Mittal (CEO People Group) asked Vineeta Singh if he might accompany her, expressing his own interest in the market. Following Vineeta's acceptance, they jointly made an offer of ₹60 Lakhs for 10%, keeping the same valuation. Aman Gupta (Co-founder & CMO boAt Lifestyle) offered to pay back ₹10 Lakhs for 2% of the total amount as debt with 12% interest over the following two years. Is Aman Gupta open to considering a straight equity deal? inquired Priyasha. She responded to every Shark with ₹60 Lakhs for 4%, and Aman promised to finalise the deal at 5%.

Deepinder Goyal chimed in, advising business owners to seek additional capital in order to obtain more equity. He proposed that she raise 1.2 Crores for 10%, which she agreed to, pitching 1.2 Crores for 10% and requesting a valuation of 12 Crore. Because Vineeta believed Priyasha favoured Aman, she chose not to engage in discussions. After a quick discussion with the Sharks, Priyasha agreed to 5% of Aman's original offer of ₹60 Lakhs. After the Shark Tank India deal, the valuation of The Cinnamon Kitchen is ₹12 Crores.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the collaboration between boAt CMO Aman Gupta and The Cinnamon Kitchen, resulting in a Rs 60 lakh investment on Shark Tank India 3, marks a promising partnership between the tech and culinary worlds. This strategic move not only showcases the diversity of investments on the show but also highlights the potential for innovative ventures to thrive in the dynamic Indian business landscape. As The Cinnamon Kitchen flourishes with this newfound support, it exemplifies the entrepreneurial spirit and cross-industry collaboration fostered by platforms like Shark Tank.