From Baking for His Daughter to Building a Guilt-Free Food

Sandeep Jangala's path to food entrepreneurship wasn't a straight line — it was shaped by sport, fitness, and technology.

A former India Under-19 cricketer, Jangala grew up closely working with nutritionists and understanding how food affects performance. That early exposure stayed with him. In 2013, he launched a government ERP solutions company, scaling it to ₹50 crore before pivoting into a tech-enabled fitness and nutrition platform — which was later acquired by the Apollo Group in 2021–22.

"I've always been in the fitness and nutrition ecosystem," he says. "So when we decided to enter food, the goal was clear to create products people could eat every day without guilt, but without sacrificing taste."

He identified a pattern that had frustrated him for years: healthy alternatives existed, but consumers rarely stuck with them.

"People want to eat better. But if taste is compromised, it's not sustainable. We wanted to eliminate that trade-off."

Yummy Bee started as a cloud kitchen focused solely on sugar-free desserts. Physical cafés were never part of the original plan. But customer behaviour quickly reshaped the business.

"People started asking for food, for coffee, for a place to sit," Jangala says. "Everything we've built has evolved based on how customers visualised our brand."

One unexpected moment changed the company's direction entirely. A mother approached the team asking if they could make pasta and pizza for her eight-year-old daughter, who had severe celiac disease and couldn't eat outside food.

"We made it as a birthday gift," Jangala recalls. "That was our first non-dessert product and it opened our eyes to what this space could become."

Today, Yummy Bee offers a full menu spanning desserts, hot meals, and beverages, all designed around sugar-free and gluten-free principles. Desserts are priced between ₹200–350, with premium items like the San Sebastian cheesecake (a crustless, caramelised signature product) at ₹350. Food ranges from ₹250–500, with baked fries at ₹220, salads and rice bowls at ₹350, and pizzas at ₹450.

The customer base reflects the brand's reach. Mothers and children are a core audience, but the cafés often see three generations dining together.

"We've had grandparents enjoying desserts they couldn't eat before because of diabetes," Jangala says. "That's when you realise the emotional impact of what you're building."

Behind every item on the Yummy Bee menu is a serious investment in research and development.

The company operates a 4,000 sq ft R&D facility in Hyderabad with around 40 chefs and nutritionists. Every product undergoes months of testing before it reaches a customer.

"Our benchmark is simple," Jangala says. "If you close your eyes and eat the product, you shouldn't feel it's a guilt-free alternative. And we always ask would we serve this to our own families?"

That process takes anywhere between three to six months per product. The goal isn't just substitution it's parity. Recreating indulgent flavours with healthier inputs.

Current R&D efforts include millet-based croissants, sourdough burgers, and low-calorie beverages, all aimed at delivering familiar taste with significantly reduced sugar content.

The numbers suggest the model is working. Yummy Bee currently operates 17 kitchens, 10 cafés and 7 cloud kitchens and reports an annual run rate of approximately ₹35 crore. At the store level, the company claims 15% net profitability.

Same-store growth has been strong too, with existing outlets recording a 170% rise in sales over the past year.

On the funding side, Yummy Bee has raised a ₹7 crore seed round followed by a ₹19 crore Series A, with a larger round planned in the next six months to fuel rapid expansion. The immediate target is 22 outlets by March, with a longer-term goal of 50 stores across cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, and Chennai. If executed as planned, Jangala projects the business to reach a ₹150–200 crore run rate within 18 months.

Growth, however, has come with its own set of challenges. Expanding into new cities requires navigating varying regulatory norms, while maintaining consistency across stores remains an ongoing focus.

"Major challenges lie in operations making sure SOPs are followed uniformly, monitoring product quality, and ensuring service standards remain the same across stores," says Sonia.

Looking ahead, Yummy Bee is exploring niche sub-brands built around millet-based burgers, donuts, and pizza concepts.