Kunafa World

Jameela Ruhi (Co-founder — Baker & Product Lead) is the culinary heart and operational backbone of Kunafa World — a home baker who became India's leading authority on kunafa not through culinary school training but through passionate self-directed recipe development, supplier sourcing, and the constant refinement of a dessert that most Indians had never tasted before. Zamzeer Ahamed (Co-founder — Business & Marketing Lead) is the commercial architect — a Telecom engineer with an MBA in International Business from Manipal University who recognised that his wife's kunafa could be a scalable business, became her first customer and marketer simultaneously, and built the brand strategy that took Kunafa World from a Facebook page in Mangalore to a national food brand with Ranveer Singh and Zomato shout-outs. He manages branding and marketing across all locations.

Kunafa World is India's first dedicated kunafa dessert chain — baking and serving 15+ varieties of kunafa (a traditional Palestinian/Middle Eastern dessert made from shredded semolina dough or kataifi pastry, filled with soft white cheese or cream, soaked in sugar syrup flavoured with rose or orange blossom water, and garnished with crushed pistachios) that is 100% vegetarian, fresh-baked, available in dine-in outlets and through Zomato delivery, positioning a globally beloved but India-unknown dessert tradition as the country's next mass-market sweet obsession.

Amount Asked: ₹90 lakhs Equity Offered: 5% Implied Pre-Money Valuation: ₹18 crore

Kunafa World's pitch was the second of Episode 28 — arriving after Humpy A2's organic dairy success with something that required zero explanation of the health benefits or the organic farming supply chain: a fresh, warm kunafa, served to each Shark immediately upon presentation. The sharks were served kunafas for tasting and they liked it. Sharktankindiaclub The tagline — "Kunafa ke saath Munafa" (Profit with Kunafa) — was Season 1's most clever pitch slogan: a rhyming Hindi phrase that is simultaneously a business proposition (profit), a consumer promise (kunafa), and a cultural reference (the Indian tradition of associating sweetness with auspicious occasions and good outcomes). The pitch opened with a question that was also the business thesis: "Har ghar mein meetha toh banta hai boss, hum aapke liye laye hain jiska naam hai Kunafa!" (Every home makes something sweet, boss — we've brought you something called Kunafa!).

Vineeta Singh was the first to exit — on scalability grounds. Vineeta was the first shark to go out due to the lack of scalability of the business. Anupam Mittal gave the most actionable strategic advice with his exit. Anupam advised them to collaborate with Swiggy and Zomato to earn maximum profit and he was out. Namita Thapar echoed the digital-first advice. Namita suggested them to collaborate online as well and she was out. Peyush Bansal and Ghazal Alagh were the most interested remaining Sharks, engaging in the negotiation that produced the competing offers. The founders ultimately received offers but no formally closed post-show deal.

The founders countered by saying that they would like all three of them to join together, and thus, Peyush, Vineeta, and Ghazal offered ₹50 lakhs for 10% equity each and the deal was done.

50 lakh for 10%