From Rs 5,000 to Shark Tank: How Megha Sarayan built Modge, a mood-based dessert brand

In the second year of her economics honours course at Scottish Church College in Kolkata, Megha Sarayan attended a baking workshop hosted by a senior. She was not really interested in cooking, but was quite keen about trying new things.

She baked for friends and family. They gave her what she calls 'the fake compliments' — the encouraging kind you give someone whose effort you admire more than the result. 

On a whim, she listed her bakery on food delivery platform Zomato, which was just beginning to make inroads into Kolkata at the time. Her first order, a chocolate truffle cake, soon came through, and the rest, as they say, is history. 

Within a month, Sarayan realised there was a clear gap in the online bakery delivery space that no one was addressing. She named the venture Land of Cakes, inspired by her college, which was named after Scotland—often referred to as the “land of cakes.”

In August 2018, she used Rs 5,000 from her savings to rent a 150 sq ft space in the building where she lived. She hired a few people, and within a few months, Land of Cakes was averaging 7 to 8 orders a day, and before the pandemic hit, it rose to 20.

“During the pandemic, I became the only person running the business, taking orders, baking and cleaning. As most offline stores were shut, I started getting more orders. I was also preparing for the CAT exam. I spent more than six hours baking 25 to 40 cakes every day. The rest of the time I had to study,” she recalls.

Sarayan was sure she would pursue an MBA only if she got into IIM-Calcutta, so she could also manage her business and an educational loan. Unfortunately, she secured a seat at IIM-Kozhikode and had to drop her plans.

“That’s when I realised I don’t want to trade off my business. From 2021, I started scaling the business full-time,” she says. 

Since then, she has opened four cloud kitchens in Kolkata and one in Hyderabad. Her first physical outlet opened in Kolkata’s Sector 5, a corporate hub. Last year, she rebranded the business to Modge and, in January, raised Rs 72 lakh from angel investors.

“Since we were building a cafe model, we wanted a name that didn’t just resonate with cakes or baker. People come in to spend time,” she points out.

Sarayan is an alumna of Aarambh 6.0, PW School of Startups' mentorship bootcamp for early and growth-stage founders. The programme sharpened her business structuring and investor-readiness, and introduced her to marketing contacts and pitch opportunities that set the stage for what came next, she says.

A mood-based cravings brand

Modge, coined from “mood and indulge,” positions itself as a mood-based craving-solutions brand.

Sarayan elaborates, “Whenever you are driven by a particular craving because of the mood you are in right now, we cater to that mood. PMS cravings are a different mood. Midnight cravings, pregnancy cravings, stress-buster cravings. PMS cravings - we indulge that mood.” 

Modge therefore offers products such as Me Time and Glow Up to cater to different moods. The brand currently has 70 SKUs, out of which 30 are beverages, and the rest fall into the bakery and dessert categories.

“In essence, people are not just ordering because they want to celebrate birthdays or anniversaries. They order because of some cravings or moods. We are trying to map our products with moods,” she adds. 

The brand’s pricing sits in the mass-premium segment: cakes start at Rs 600, a slice of cheesecake at Rs 150, and brownies at Rs 50 each. Its bestsellers include Date Walnut Cake and various cheesecakes. All menu items are vegetarian. 

The Shark Tank experience

Sarayan pitched Modge on Shark India Season 5 and won Rs 1 crore in funding at 9% equity from Anupam Mittal, one of the Sharks.

“To be honest, I was not feeling well that day. I thought I did not give my best. I thought I could have done better. But when it was aired, it came out really very well, better than I expected. We are expecting the fund to come in two to three months,” she says.

“Anupam Mittal is a seasoned entrepreneur, and I hope his advice will help us with funding,” she adds. 

Beyond capital, Sarayan expects Mittal to help negotiate better terms with aggregator platforms and bring strategic clarity at inflection points. 

As of January 2026, Modge is 2% EBITDA positive at the entity level.

At 26, Sarayan leads a team of 35 people, with her brother handling operations and her driving growth and brand. She has raised money, scaled a business, and pitched on national television.

"The most common investor question has been: What happens to your business when you get married? I've seen friends asked about children post-marriage, too. It doesn't stop,” she says.

When applying for business loans from established lenders, she was told she needed a male co-applicant: a husband or a father. 

"I've been advised more than once to bring on a male co-founder just to give investors more confidence. My male peers seem to access debt and equity more easily. Things have not changed."

Her two-year roadmap is ambitious. Sarayan is looking to deepen the brand’s presence in Kolkata and Hyderabad, and expand into Tier II cities in eastern and southern India, where aspirational consumers exist but quality bakery brands do not.