In Shark Tank India Season 3 Episode 35, Creme Castle presented their business Creme Castle to the sharks.
Founded by Pranjay Mittal and Veena Mittal, it is India’s first and only cake brand that customizes cakes within 2 hours at a price 40% lower than market rates. The business that started from Veena’s kitchen now has now has 3 branches in Delhi NCR, and more than 5 lakh customers.
The mother-son duo pitched their business to the Sharks, asking for 60 lakhs for 1.5% equity at a valuation of 40 crores. However, Sharks were amazed when Amit Jain revealed that Pranjay used to work at CarDekho and left the company to start the business. Pranjay is an IIT Delhi graduate.
His mother always had a passion for baking. Whenever there was a celebration, she used to bake cakes, and after receiving positive feedback, she started doing it professionally in 2013 when her husband presented her with a small bakery. It was near medical and engineering colleges, the bakery quickly became popular.
Pranjay mentioned that during his final year at IIT Delhi, his mother started the bakery, but before that, he had already started two businesses but failed both. He said that he always desired to start his own business since he was young, after selling a TV in his father’s shop in 6th grade.
After failing in two businesses, Pranjay realized that he was not ready for it. During that time, Amit came to his campus and selected him as a product manager after the last round. It was at CarDekho that he learned everything about tech and gained the confidence to start again. He approached Amit with his business idea. It was Amit who formed the business model and supported him and didn’t accept his resignation. Pranjay now handles all the tech and marketing for the business. His inspiration came from seeing Amit build a billion-dollar company in Jaipur, believing that if Amit could do it, so could he.
Although the Sharks were impressed by the products and the pitch, they had their concerns. Aman mentioned that several brands do the same, which Namita agreed with. This led Vinita Singh, Namita Thapar, Aman Gupta, and Anupam to opt out of the deal as they didn’t see the business as scalable.
However, Amit had an issue with the valuation of the company. He proposed 60 lakhs for 5% equity. After a quiet conversation, the deal was done at 60 lakhs for 2.5% equity.
Read More: Prachi Shevgaonkar’s Cool The Globe app steals the spotlight on Shark Tank
