R&D-Led Kitchenware Brand Cumin Co. Bags $5 Million Pre-Series A Funding

Cumin Co., a health-forward and R&D-focused kitchenware brand, has raised USD 5 million in a Pre-Series A funding round led by Fireside Ventures. Existing investors Huddle Ventures and Alteria Capital also participated in the round.

The funding round also saw participation from strategic angels, including Atrium Angels, Sangeet Agrawal and Navin Parwal (Founder, Mokobara), Abhishek Goyal (Founder, Tracxn), Pankaj Chaddah (Founder, Zomato), Nikhil Bhandarkar (Founding Partner, Panthera Peak), Mukesh Singh (Founder, Zop Smart), Arnav Kumar (Founder, Leap Finance), and Roman Saini (Founder, Unacademy).

The funding comes on the back of Cumin Co. achieving strong product–market fit and recording 10x revenue growth within eight months of launch. The performance signals growing demand in a category traditionally seen as difficult to premiumise, positioning the company as an emerging player in India’s premium kitchenware segment.

Central to this growth is the company’s materials-led R&D focus. Cumin Co.’s proprietary innovation platform is anchored by Enviromax™, a performance material engineered specifically for Indian cooking conditions. With three granted patents and five pending across material science, surface coating architecture and product design, the company has built a defensible, science-led foundation in a largely commoditised market.

By prioritising high-quality, toxin-free materials over low-cost mass alternatives or limited imports, Cumin Co. aims to make safe, high-performance cookware more widely accessible without compromising on health, performance or availability.

Building an IP-Led Kitchenware Brand

Founded by Niharika Joshi and Udit Lekhi, ISB alumni with over 25 years of combined leadership experience across companies including Mastercard, Noise, Microsoft, Meta, Deloitte, Parthenon, and Zomato, Cumin Co. brings together consumer insight, brand-building expertise and operational discipline.

The founders have deliberately avoided vanity metrics, focusing instead on repeat purchases, retention and contribution margins as indicators of long-term customer trust. The brand operates as an iterative product company, where consumer feedback, usage data and real kitchen behaviour continuously inform R&D and product refinement.

Each product launch is treated as an evolving process rather than a final outcome, enabling sustained improvements and long-term credibility with customers. Growth has been driven by lived product experience, resulting in strong repeat rates and customer advocacy beyond marketing-led adoption.

The D2C brand remains focused on product quality and continued investment in R&D for Indian cooking styles, selective channel expansion, and a customer-first communication approach.

“Over the past few years, we’ve seen a clear shift in how Indian households think about health—not just in what they cook, but in what they cook with,” said Niharika Joshi and Udit Lekhi, Co-founders of Cumin Co. “Consumers today are asking sharper questions about materials, coatings, and what comes into contact with their food every day. By putting innovation and customer needs at the center—from safer materials to products designed specifically for Indian cooking—we’ve been able to scale with solutions grounded in research & engineering, while building long-term trust.”

By competing on engineering and trust rather than price alone, the company has seen premium adoption across metros as well as Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.

Strong Investor Conviction

Investors highlighted clarity of vision, early product–market fit and disciplined scaling as key reasons for backing the company.

“Cumin Co. has achieved a clear product–market fit in a category that is notoriously difficult to crack,” said Shuchi Pandya, Principal, Fireside Ventures. “Strong repeat rates, healthy unit economics, and disciplined scaling gave us full conviction to back the business, and double down on our earlier bets on the future of Cumin Co., and its ability to reform kitchenware as a category in India.”

"What impressed us most is the quality of growth”, added Ishaan Khosla, Partner at Huddle Ventures. “Cumin Co. is building a D2C brand that consumers return to, with clear fundamentals around product and channel mix that set it up for long-term success."

Jasdeep Singh Bhatia, Senior Vice President at Alteria Capital, said, “The combination of product excellence, retention-driven growth, and selective distribution makes Cumin Co. a rare investment in the Indian consumer space. It’s a business we are confident can scale sustainably and defensibly.”

What’s Next

The capital will be deployed to expand Cumin Co.’s R&D-led product portfolio across cookware and kitchen essentials, and to strengthen supply chain and product innovation capabilities.

As the company enters its next phase of growth, the focus remains on building science-backed, performance-driven kitchenware designed for Indian homes.

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