Premium dessert brand Cookie Cartel made its appearance on Shark Tank India season 5, where founder Hisham Sunehra shared the journey of building a New York–style cookie brand tailored for Indian consumers without positioning it as an occasional indulgence.
Entering the Tank, the founder sought ₹75 lakh for 5% equity, valuing the business at ₹15 crore. During the pitch, Hisham revealed that what started as a small, bootstrapped experiment has now grown into a scalable dessert business.
Founded with a focus on quality and consistency, Cookie Cartel operates in the premium cookie segment. The brand uses nitrogen-flushed, oxygen-barrier packaging, which enables a 30-day shelf life allowing cookies to be shipped beyond immediate delivery windows. Priced between ₹190 and ₹330, the products are currently sold through the brand’s own website and via six cloud kitchens across Mumbai.
Sharing operational insights, the founder explained that Cookie Cartel follows a central kitchen model, where a setup costing around ₹15 lakh can support 15 – 20 cloud kitchens. This asset-light structure has helped the brand scale efficiently, processing close to one lakh orders annually.
On the financial front, Hisham shared that Cookie Cartel recorded ₹30 lakh in revenue in FY24, which grew to ₹1 crore in FY25, and has already crossed ₹1.5 crore in year-to-date revenue. The brand is now targeting ₹3.5 crore in gross sales for FY26. While the business is currently loss-making, the founder attributed this to aggressive performance marketing spends aimed at accelerating brand awareness and repeat purchases.
According to the founder, Cookie Cartel enjoys a 35% repeat rate on its website, with 32-42% repeat orders on Swiggy and Zomato. Gross margins stand at around 65%, while product write-offs remain under 10%, helping the brand maintain cost discipline during growth.
The brand closed a deal on the show, securing ₹80 lakh for 12% equity, valuing Cookie Cartel at ₹6.67 crore, with Anupam Mittal, Kanika Tekriwal, and Vineeta Singh backing the venture.
With fresh capital and strategic backing from the Sharks, Cookie Cartel plans to expand its cloud kitchen network beyond Mumbai and enter new cities.
