Zoff Foods Founders: How Two Raipur Brothers Built a ₹100 Crore Spice Brand

By his own account, Akash Agrawalla once had to let go of an entire 350-person sales team, and ZOFF Foods kept going. Its FY25 filings now show revenue of ₹102.7 crore (about $10.8 million) and a net loss of about ₹17 crore (about $1.8 million). The Zoff Foods founders chose growth, and the numbers show what it costs.

USD figures in this story use ₹95 = $1, an approximate mid-market rate for October 2026, unless a source gave its own dollar figure. Claims attributed to the founders are not independently verified.

In this story (about 10 minutes)

Zoff Foods founders: a steel family, a failed app and a costly lesson

ZOFF Foods, short for Zone of Fresh Foods, was founded in 2018 in Raipur by brothers Akash Agrawalla and Ashish Agrawal, according to the company. Their family ran a steel business.

Akash, who holds an MBA in marketing, ran that business from 2010 to 2015, Inc42 reported in July 2024. Outlook Business has reported that Ashish studied business management at La Trobe University in Australia.

Akash wanted something of his own. His first attempt was CheckedIn, a location-based social networking app. By his account to Inc42, it cost him ₹1 crore in two years. He then weighed a return to the family firm against building a consumer brand from scratch. Steel, he told Inc42, was too regulated and too set in its patterns for the kind of brand he had in mind.

The brothers chose spices, a category crowded with incumbents. Akash read that as an opening. Legacy brands, he said, were reluctant to change and assumed the status quo would hold.

That is a founder’s view of the market, not a measured fact. It does explain the product choices that followed.

Cool grinding, zip-lock pouches and a whole-spice bet

ZOFF launched as a direct-to-consumer brand selling ground, blended and whole spices, plus dry fruits. Its pitch rested on three things.

The first is cool grinding. Inc42 described a process that uses air to break whole spices into small particles. The company says this limits the heat of hammer mills and keeps flavour and oils intact. The second is zip-lock pouches, aimed at buyers who would otherwise decant spices from single-use sachets or large packs. The third is whole spices, graded largely by hand. Akash told Inc42 that whole cloves are packed as whole spice while broken ones go to grinding.

The company runs a fully automated plant and a 10,000 sq ft temperature-controlled warehouse in Raipur, Inc42 reported in July 2024. Akash said the founders had put ₹60 crore (about $6.3 million) into setting up the plant. That is a founder’s claim, and StartupIndiaX has not verified it.

By July 2024 ZOFF sold more than 100 SKUs. The full range sat on its own site, while marketplaces carried fast movers such as cumin and amchoor. Whole spices made up 45 percent of the business then. Akash argued that they account for nearly half of a household’s spice spending.

Why lean on whole spices? He told IMPACT in July 2026 that the category had a gap, and that buyers can see the quality of what they are buying, which makes trust easier to build. Editorial analysis: a whole spice rewards a brand that is willing to be inspected, in a category that has faced repeated scrutiny over quality and contamination.

The year 350 salespeople left

ZOFF’s first distribution plan was old-fashioned. For two years the brothers worked general trade and expanded to 20 states, Akash told Inc42. It proved expensive.

“we had to let go of our entire sales team of 350”

Akash Agrawalla on the Covid-19 shock of 2020, speaking to Inc42, July 2024

By his account, the founders had already spent ₹60 crore on the plant and about ₹30 crore (about $3.2 million) on general trade. The company was bootstrapped at that point, and now it had no sales force. They turned to e-commerce.

Flipkart brought in ₹2.5 crore of turnover. Army and police canteens added volume. ZOFF closed FY22 with turnover of ₹50 crore (about $5.3 million) and broke even with a team of four, Akash said. These are the founder’s claims.

In August 2022 ZOFF joined the CRED marketplace and ran paid sampling, charging buyers only for shipping. In February 2023 the brothers appeared on Shark Tank India. Aman Gupta, a co-founder of boAt, put in ₹1 crore for 1.25 percent, valuing ZOFF at ₹80 crore (about $8.4 million), Outlook India reported. Akash told IMPACT the show did not produce an instant revenue spike but gave consumers confidence in the brand.

By then, he told Inc42, monthly turnover had reached ₹5 to 6 crore. ZOFF sold on Blinkit, Swiggy and Zepto, and by the end of FY23 it had entered modern trade. A three-month ONDC trial brought in ₹1.5 crore, he said.

Who funded ZOFF, and how much

JM Financial Private Equity led a ₹40 crore Series A (reported as $4.8 million) in August 2024 through its India Growth Fund III, Entrackr reported. In March 2026 ZOFF raised a $2 million pre-Series B led by JM Financial, with Gupta also taking part, according to Restaurant India. Inc42 said the money would go to offline distribution in general and modern trade, more quick-commerce presence, and marketing and sales.

Reports of cumulative funding range from about $4.8 million to about $7 million. The lowest figure matches the Series A alone. Add the 2026 round and the Shark Tank cheque and the sum comes close to $7 million (editorial analysis).

By March 2026, Inc42 reported, ZOFF had a presence in about 30,000 general trade stores, alongside Zepto, Blinkit, Amazon and Flipkart.

Inside the FY25 ledger

ZOFF has not published gross margin, customer acquisition cost or contribution margin. Its filed numbers are the best available view of its unit economics.

Revenue from operations was ₹102.7 crore in FY25, up about 11 percent from ₹92.6 crore (about $9.7 million) in FY24, Inc42 reported from regulatory filings. FY20 revenue was ₹25.79 crore (about $2.7 million), as stated by the company.

Costs grew much faster. Total expenses rose 32 percent to ₹120 crore (about $12.6 million), and the net loss widened to about ₹17 crore from ₹20 lakh in FY24, Entrackr reported. Inc42 had reported FY24 as a ₹1 crore profit in July 2024. This story uses the later filing-based figure. D2C Insider calculated that ZOFF spent ₹1.17 for every ₹1 it earned, with an EBITDA margin of minus 17.96 percent.

Entrackr’s breakdown of the filings shows where it went:

• Raw materials: ₹73 crore (about $7.7 million), 61 percent of total cost and up 22 percent from ₹60 crore.
• Advertising: ₹12 crore (about $1.3 million), up from ₹4 crore.
• Employee benefits: ₹5 crore, up 25 percent.
• Bad debt: ₹4 crore.

Editorial analysis, using those rounded figures:

• Raw materials cost about 71 paise per rupee of revenue in FY25, against about 65 paise in FY24. The filings do not say why.
• Advertising rose from about 4 percent of revenue to about 12 percent.
• Revenue grew by roughly ₹10 crore, while costs grew by roughly ₹29 crore.

Read together, FY25 was not a year of thin margins on steady growth. Each extra rupee of sales came with close to ₹3 of extra cost.

Quick commerce: half the sales, and a new bill

ZOFF makes money by manufacturing its own-brand spices and kitchen staples and selling them through four routes: quick commerce, e-commerce marketplaces, modern trade and general trade. In February 2026 Inc42 reported that about half of sales came from quick commerce and 20 percent from e-commerce, leaving roughly 30 percent for offline channels, Akash put quick commerce at 65 to 70 percent of the business. Either the mix has shifted or the figures use different bases.

The channel was an early bet that paid off.

“When quick commerce arrived, we jumped in immediately.”

Akash Agrawalla, IMPACT, 31 July 2026

Staying there has become costlier. Akash told IMPACT that commissions and onboarding fees were waived or nominal when ZOFF joined, and that ads were once optional. “Now ads have become central,” he said, with rate cards commonly at ₹10 to 20 lakh a month. He added that the channel offers lower margins and returns, and that ZOFF spends 10 to 15 percent of GMV on it, depending on the platform. These are the founder’s claims.

The FY25 filings do not say how much of the ₹12 crore advertising line went to quick commerce. The timing fits, but that remains editorial analysis.

ZOFF is also widening beyond one channel. It entered ready-to-cook with Reliance Retail in June 2025. In May 2026 Akash told MediaNews4U that the push now includes deeper general trade in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Chhattisgarh, and Harpreet Singh joined as head of supply in early 2026. Shilpa Shetty has been the brand ambassador for nine consecutive years, as of May 2026. On 19 September 2026 ZOFF launched “Know The Brand”, a campaign urging shoppers to question the quality, sourcing and purity of whole spices.

“Digital will remain the core of our media mix”

Akash Agrawalla, MediaNews4U, 21 May 2026

Targets that keep moving

ZOFF’s founders have shared ambitious numbers more than once:

• July 2024: aimed to clock ₹170 crore+ by the end of that fiscal, Inc42 reported. FY25 revenue was filed at ₹102.7 crore.
• November 2024: IndiaRetailing reported Akash targeting ₹450 crore (about $47.4 million) by 2029.
• 2025: Businessworld reported a ₹200 crore target for FY26.
• February 2026: Inc42 projected ₹160 crore (about $16.8 million) for FY26, with about ₹110 crore (about $11.6 million) already clocked.
• May 2026: Akash told MediaNews4U that ZOFF was publicly targeting around ₹200 crore (about $21.1 million).
• July 2026: Akash told IMPACT revenue had grown nearly three times, from ₹54 crore to over ₹150 crore (about $15.8 million). He did not state the period, and StartupIndiaX has not verified the figure.

Targets are not results. The filed number and the stated number have differed before, and the audited FY26 figures, not yet public in the sources reviewed, will settle the latest claim.

ZOFF against the legacy spice shelf

ZOFF sells into a shelf held by legacy names. Inc42 named Tata Sampann and Patanjali among the incumbents it faces, and Everest and MDH are the other household names in packaged masalas. Akash’s view, told to IMPACT, is that no single brand owns the whole spice shelf, so a newcomer only needs to give shoppers a reason to try it.

ZOFF’s wedge is whole spices, a segment Akash has called the largest in the unorganised market. Editorial analysis: that wedge has a price visible in the filings. With raw materials at about 71 paise per rupee of revenue, little is left for advertising, bad debt and people. How far scale can lower that ratio is the open question.

Valuation and net worth: what is actually known

The only company valuation disclosed in the reports reviewed is the ₹80 crore implied on Shark Tank India in February 2023. Valuations for the 2024 and 2026 rounds were not disclosed. Several aggregator sites carry higher “estimates”, but none cites a source, so StartupIndiaX does not use them.

There is no credible, sourced net worth figure for either brother. One financial data page lists an Akash Agarwal as CEO of another company, V2 Retail. That is a different person. StartupIndiaX will not publish a net worth for the ZOFF founders until a named source does.

Five lessons from ZOFF’s numbers

Pick a gap you can defend. Akash’s case for whole spices, that buyers can see what they are paying for, gave ZOFF a reason to exist beside incumbents. A visible product made trust cheaper to build than it is for sealed masalas.

Treat distribution as a cost line, not an identity. General trade across 20 states cost about ₹30 crore and ended with a sales team let go, by the founder’s account. ZOFF now runs both online and offline, with the mix reviewed channel by channel.

Expect platform economics to change after you arrive. Quick commerce waived or kept fees nominal early, then made ads central. Founders who treat early terms as permanent will misprice the channel.

Say a target once and update it in public. ₹170 crore became ₹102.7 crore filed, and FY26 has been quoted at ₹160 crore and ₹200 crore. Readers, investors and hires all notice the gap.

Watch the materials line first. At about 71 paise per rupee of revenue in FY25, raw materials left the least room for error. In a commodity-linked category, that ratio is the unit economics.

ZOFF has what many D2C founders chase: scale, a named investor and a brand shoppers recognise. What it has not yet shown, on the public record, is a year in which each extra rupee of sales cost less than a rupee. The FY26 audited numbers will say more.

What would you want ZOFF to disclose next? Tell us in the comments, and explore more founder stories on StartupIndiaX. If your startup has a story worth telling, submit it here.

FAQs

Sources and disclosure

Story type: public-source profile.

Sources

• Inc42, “Inside Zoff’s Cookbook: How This Spice Brand Achieved 4X Revenue Growth”, 30 July 2024. https://inc42.com/startups/how-d2c-brand-zoff-foods-blended-the-power-of-spices-with-a-dash-of-technology-to-4x-its-revenue-turn-a-profit/
• Inc42, “How ZOFF Grew To ₹102.7 Cr Within Seven Years”, February 2026. https://inc42.com/startups/how-zoff-grew-to-₹102-7-cr-within-seven-years/
• Inc42, “D2C Spices Brand Zoff Foods Bags $2 Mn To Expand Omnichannel Sales”, March 2026. https://inc42.com/buzz/d2c-spice-brand-zoff-bags-2mn/
• Entrackr, “Spice brand Zoff raises Rs 40 Cr in Series A from JM Financial”, August 2024. https://entrackr.com/2024/08/spice-brand-zoff-raises-rs-40-cr-in-series-a-from-jm-financial
• Entrackr, FY25 financials report on ZOFF, March 2026. URL to be added.
• D2C Insider, FY25 financials coverage, March 2026. URL to be added.
• Restaurant India, “ZOFF Foods Raises $2 MN in Pre-Series B Round from JM Financial Private Equity”, March 2026. https://www.restaurantindia.in/news/restaurant-india-news-zoff-foods-raises-2-mn-in-pre-series-b-round-from-jm-financial-private-equity.n15481
• Outlook India, Shark Tank India coverage of ZOFF, February 2023. URL to be added.
• IMPACT, “Mohalla to Metro: How ZOFF Turned a Raipur Spice Brand into a Pan-India Challenger”, 31 July 2026. https://www.impactonnet.com/impact-stories/mohalla-to-metro-how-zoff-turned-a-raipur-spice-brand-into-a-pan-india-challenger-15745.html
• IMPACT, “Quick Commerce Becomes Core to D2C Growth, But at What Cost?”, date to confirm. https://www.impactonnet.com/impact-stories/from-discovery-to-dependency-the-quick-commerce-catch-12023.html
• MediaNews4U, “ZOFF Foods focuses on accessible retail channels…: Akash Agrawalla”, 21 May 2026. https://www.medianews4u.com/zoff-foods-focuses-on-accessible-retail-channels-as-consumers-demand-quality-with-greater-convenience-akash-agrawalla/
• MediaNews4U, “ZOFF Foods launches ‘Know The Brand’ campaign…”, 19 September 2026. https://www.medianews4u.com/zoff-foods-launches-know-the-brand-campaign-to-encourage-informed-spice-choices/
• IndiaRetailing, “Zoff Rs 450 Cr by 2029: Akash Agrawalla”, 6 November 2024. https://www.indiaretailing.com/2024/11/06/zoff-rs-450-cr-by-2029-akash-agrawalla/
• Businessworld, “Zoff Foods Eyes Enhanced Offline Presence, Rs 200 Cr Revenue In FY26”, 2025 (date to confirm). https://www.businessworld.in/article/zoff-foods-eyes-rs-200-cr-revenue-offline-expansion-in-fy26-co-founder-556624
• Outlook Business, “ZOFF Foods Bets on Clean Processing and Packaging to Disrupt India’s Spice Market”. https://www.outlookbusiness.com/magazine/zoff-foods-bets-on-clean-processing-and-packaging-to-disrupt-indias-spice-market
• Asia Food Journal, ZOFF Foods ready-to-cook partnership with Reliance Retail, June 2025. https://asiafoodjournal.com/zoff-foods-forays-into-ready-to-cook-segment-in-strategic-partnership-with-reliance-retail/
• Asia Food Journal, appointment of Harpreet Singh as head of supply, early 2026. https://asiafoodjournal.com/zoff-foods-strengthens-leadership-with-the-appointment-of-harpreet-singh-as-head-of-supply/
• ZOFF Foods, About us. https://zofffoods.com/pages/history-philosophy-and-uniqueness

AI-assistance note: This article was drafted with AI assistance and reviewed and fact-checked by StartupIndiaX Editorial Team.

Corrections: Spotted an error? Email corrections@startupindiax.com and we will review and update the article.

Written by StartupIndiaX Editorial Team, StartupIndiaX writer covering Indian startups, founders, and entrepreneurship.