The State Plate

The founders of The State Plate are Muskaan Sancheti and Raghav Jhawar, both alumni of Shri Ram College of Commerce in Delhi, having graduated last year. Raghav is from Kolkata, and Muskaan is from Bangalore, both aged 22. Before this venture, they worked in management consulting jobs, and both graduated with a 98.5% score. Sharktankindiaclub Muskaan Sancheti (Co-founder & CEO) is the strategic and operational leader — a management consultant turned entrepreneur who identified in her own experience of missing Bengaluru's specific regional foods while studying and working in Delhi the core insight that became The State Plate's mission. Raghav Jhawar (Co-founder) brings the Kolkata perspective — the specific flavours, sweets, and snacks that define his hometown and that are impossible to find authentically anywhere else. His background in management consulting gave him the analytical framework to evaluate the market opportunity that Muskaan's personal experience had surfaced.

The State Plate is a D2C regional food discovery and delivery platform — connecting Indian consumers with authentic, state-specific food products (snacks, sweets, pickles, spices, staples, and beverages) that are culturally and geographically unique to their state of origin, curated from verified local producers and manufacturers, and delivered pan-India — solving the universal problem of migrants, nostalgic food-lovers, and curious food explorers who cannot access authentic regional foods outside their home states.

Amount Asked: ₹65 lakhs Equity Offered: 2% Implied Pre-Money Valuation: ₹32.5 crore

The State Plate's pitch opened Episode 20 with the most emotionally immediate food premise in Season 1: a migrant's craving for the specific taste of home — the mishti doi that tastes nothing like anything available outside Kolkata, the Mysore pak that exists only in a specific Bengaluru sweet shop, the dal baati churma that a Rajasthani family in Mumbai cannot find authentically anywhere. Muskaan and Raghav made this personal and universal simultaneously — two young people from different cities who had each felt this longing and built a business to solve it. The ₹5,000 founding story was the pitch's most disarmingly credible detail. No institutional backing, no family money, no consulting project funding — just two SRCC graduates, ₹5,000, and the conviction that India's regional food diversity was the world's most underserved food category.

Aman Gupta was enthusiastic about the founders but pessimistic about the category. Aman said that he supports young entrepreneurs but the industry is very brutal and competitive. He is out. Ashneer Grover exited citing his deep experience with private label at Grofers. Ashneer says that he had a deep experience with private labeling at Grofers. Anupam Mittal was willing to offer — conditionally. Anupam wants to offer but asks again if they want to build a specialized grocery company. Peyush Bansal was the sole remaining Shark and the most aligned strategically — building a marketplace that brings the best quality product at the right price to underserved Indian consumers was Lenskart's own founding proposition in eyewear. Peyush offered ₹20 lakhs for 1.5% equity OR ₹40 lakhs for 3% equity, eventually settling at ₹40 lakhs for 3%.

The founders gave a counter offer: ₹20 lakhs for 1.5% equity OR ₹40 lakhs for 3% equity. Peyush countered: 3% for ₹30 lakhs plus ₹25 lakhs debt — final offer. The founders didn't accept the debt component and said ₹40 lakhs for 3% is their final counter. Peyush accepted the offer.

On-Screen Deal: YES — ₹40 lakhs for 3% equity from Peyush Bansal