Crave Raja Foods

Subhabrata Ganguly and Soupaul Dubey are the co-founders of Crave Raja Food. Subhabrata and Soupaul studied Economics at Presidency University, Kolkata, and became friends while doing their Masters. Then, when they got a job at Bengaluru at BRIDGEi2i Analytics Solutions, where both were inspired by their CEO. That is where they wanted to do something on their own. They looked at Box8 and Rebel Foods' business models and started doing the same thing in Kolkata. Both moved and while working for HSBC, they built their own Crave Raja Foods.

Crave Raja Foods provides Kolkata's customers with four different brands SOS (Sandwiches, Omelettes, and Snacks), Burrito Raja, Gusto Pizza, and The Fry Raja. Crave Raja Foods has one central kitchen which serves three cloud kitchens in a Hub and Spoke Model. The brand aims to use one ingredient to make different foods, to avoid wastage of food. Crave Raja Foods is Kolkata's most efficiently structured multi-brand cloud kitchen using a single central kitchen's preparation capacity across four distinct brand identities (SOS, Burrito Raja, Gusto Pizza, The Fry Raja), with each brand targeting a different food occasion and craving profile, while sharing ingredient procurement, food preparation infrastructure, and cooking staff achieving 1 to 2 percent food wastage (industry-leading efficiency) through the single-ingredient-multiple-brand model.

Amount Asked: ₹65 lakhs Equity Offered: 3% Implied Pre-Money Valuation: ₹21.67 crore

The pitch's core innovation one ingredient, multiple brands, minimum wastage, maximum customer satisfaction was communicated with the precision of two Economics graduates who understood the operational logic of their model in detail. The hub-and-spoke efficiency, the multi-brand revenue diversification, and the 1 to 2 percent wastage figure all received positive Shark reactions. The product tasting distributing food from all four brands to the Sharks was universally praised. Aman Gupta was reportedly particularly enthusiastic about the food quality. Even as the commercial discussion revealed the part-time founder issue, the food quality itself was never in question.

Namita Thapar exited first, citing the founders' part-time commitment as incompatible with the ambitious scale of their vision. Anupam Mittal echoed the commitment concern he had experienced enough founder relationships to know that the most critical resource in any early-stage business is founder time and attention, and that part-time founders cannot execute at the pace required to reach 500 kitchen scale. Peyush Bansal was the most analytically precise in his exit. Aman Gupta was the most enthusiastic about the food but still exited on founder commitment grounds the part-time issue was a deal-breaker regardless of product quality. Amit Jain exited consistently with the panel's consensus the business had genuine merit but the founder commitment gap made institutional investment unjustifiable at this stage.

No Shark made a formal offer. All five exited without entering negotiation. The unanimous exit on part-time founder grounds was the most clear-cut no-deal reasoning in Season 2 Episode 39 not product quality concerns, not valuation issues, not competitive concerns, but specifically the founders' inability to commit full-time to a business they were simultaneously asking Sharks to value at ₹21.67 crore.

Subhabrata Ganguly and Soupaul Dey left Shark Tank India Season 2 Episode 39 without any investment. All five Sharks loved the food, praised the business model, and then unanimously declined to invest because both founders were maintaining full-time employment at HSBC while running the business. The part-time commitment issue was the only reason cited across all five exits a rare case of complete Shark alignment on a single deal-breaking concern that had nothing to do with product quality or market opportunity.

While they did not get a deal, they still have plans to expand in East and South India, to ultimately 500 plus kitchens in 20 locations around the nation. Join them in their vision as Franchise Partners and become a part of an exciting venture ahead! Thank you all for the love and support after the power packed duo of Soupaul and Subhabrata have shared their stories on Shark Tank India. The franchise partner invitation on LinkedIn posted after the Shark Tank episode indicates that Subhabrata and Soupaul are pursuing the expansion vision through franchise partnerships rather than the equity investment model. This is a commercially logical alternative to institutional investment: franchise partners provide kitchen infrastructure and local market knowledge while Crave Raja Foods provides brand, operations manual, and supply chain support.