Bihar Man Sells High-Quality Cakes To Rural Public - Clocks Rs 80 Lakh

“It was a piece of cake for me.”

“Oh, that was a cakewalk!”

These are often phrases that we use to depict how easy and breezy something was.

But why is that? Because cakes are smooth, buttery, and easily bite-able.

But ever wondered how they are difficult to even access for kids playing in some remote village in India? How do they have birthdays without cakes? Or even if they do manage to have a cake, it is mostly poor quality or stale at best.

Not a cakewalk, definitely.

One man is trying to change this picture by giving rural people the opportunity to get a high-quality, yummy, and rich cake whenever they want to.

This is Online Cake Bhejo, a Patna-based startup that was founded by Ashish Ranjan and Buddhisen Bittu. Over the years, the brand has become a social startup as well and promotes multiple self-help groups that empower agriculture and rural women.

HOW IT ALL STARTED

Hailing from Bihar, Ashish Ranjan is an engineering dropout.

Talking to Startup Pedia in an interview, he said, “I was in college when my mother had a stroke. I had to leave everything behind and come back home.”

To sustain himself and his family, Ashish began taking Android Application classes in Bihar with his college mate Buddhisen Bittu. 

“I got together with a friend and took these classes. Most of my students were interns who wanted to learn coding. At that time, there were very few institutions in the state that were giving this kind of training, he added.

After spending some years as a professional teacher, Ashish and his friend Buddhisen decided to explore other opportunities.

For Ashish, the focus had always been on adding value to the society. He wanted to leave an impact and genuinely help people in some way.

And cakes it was!

Ashish and Buddhisen decided to zero down on cakes. The aim was to deliver high-quality cakes across Bihar and add customization to them as well.

This was the start of Online Cake Bhejo in 2018.

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THE INITIAL DAYS AND CHALLENGES

Ashish Ranjan and Buddhisen Bittu started Online Cake Bhejo with just Rs 20,000 in hand.

Talking about the beginning of the startup, Ashish said, “We had very little money but knew that I had to make the most of it. I was sure that this was something that I wanted to do. I would see how children’s faces and eyes would light up at the mere mention of ‘cake.’ And I had decided to bring them exactly what they wanted — but without any compromise on quality.”

Online Cake Bhejo initially focused on technology and built its website from the ground up.

The duo also began partnering with local bakeries and forming a supply chain through which the cakes would get sourced from the bakeries and then get delivered online.

But a major issue cropped up. Customer feedback went downhill.

The quality of the cakes was not up to the mark.

Ashish explained, “Local bakeries just weren’t meeting the high standards that we had set and promised to our customers. I would visit these bakeries and ask them to show me their kitchen but they would straight up refuse. That is when I knew that I couldn’t rely on them. If I wanted to solve the problem of poor quality cakes and desserts in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, I needed to have my own set of processes and my own centralized bakery.”

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Online Cake Bhejo then shifted its focus from tech to purely quality. The company stopped deliveries completely and took some time to dedicate to Research and Development.

After a while, Ashish and Buddhisen understood the ins and outs of cakes and began baking them under his supervision. They hired and trained chefs and started offering high-quality customized cakes that start at just Rupees 1000.

Ashish also started delivering cakes locally on his motorcycle.

“My father was very sick at that time, but he was the key reason why I continued working on this cake thing I had started. Despite being bedridden, he would ask me every day about the number of sales I made. I would tell him and then he would respond by saying that this number would be doubled tomorrow. I am forever grateful for the kind of support he extended to me,” Ashish said.

The next step was to source ingredients locally and choose fresh over processed.

Ashish was surprised when his chef asked him for caramel colouring to prepare and bake brown bread. At that moment, he knew that Online Cake Bhejo needed innovation in the form of value-added nutritious products instead of processed, unhealthy foods.

So Online Cake Bhejo turned to agriculture and started helping local farmers grow millet, jowar, and ragi instead of just wheat. These would then be made into value-added products and items like millet cookies, muffins, and dry cakes by rural women.

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Over the years, OCB turned into an online cake and dessert delivery brand as well as a social startup.

Today, Ashish and Buddhisen have started multiple SHE Groups in villages in and around Bihar to help rural women find sustainable employment. He has also partnered with various FPOs.

As for the farmers, their crops have been diversified and their income is more stable than ever.

OCB has been powered by the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY-RAFTAAR). The startup was incubated at the Bhagalpur Agriculture University and received a grant of Rupees 20 lakhs.

Presently, Online Cake Bhejo offers a franchise program as well. So far, it has 8 franchise stores.

The best-selling products include budget-friendly customized cakes, jowar, barley, and ragi cookies.

In the first six months, OCB only clocked a revenue of Rupees 1 lakh. But it has seen tremendous growth since then. In FY24, the startup achieved a revenue of Rupees 80 lakhs. In FY25, it is projecting a figure of Rupees 1.5 crore.

“Till date, we have catered to more than 20,000 customers across Bihar, Jharkhand, and Uttar Pradesh,” Ashish tells Startup Pedia.

LOOKING AHEAD

In the near future, Online Cake Bhejo wants to focus on building a single software solution that centralizes all its key chains.

Through this software, the startup will be able to manage its SHE Groups and franchise stores at each and every point of sale.

By 2025, OCB is targeting an expansion to 100 franchise outlets in Bihar, UP, and Jharkhand. 

Ashish signs off by saying, “I also plan to open small and hygienic bakeries in rural villages. We have already outlined 20 places for the same and things have been set in motion. I am not keen on building a unicorn. I am just building for society.”