Ghost Kitchens India says it processes about 1.2 lakh food-delivery orders a month, up 60% year-on-year as of July 2025, across a network of 1,200-plus partner “internet restaurants” in 40 cities. Its own annual filing with the Registrar of Companies tells a different story: revenue at the parent entity, Ghost Kitchens Private Limited, fell 11.0% to ₹28.38 crore ($2.96 million, at $1 ≈ ₹96.0) in FY25, the year ended 31 March 2025, as per data aggregator Tracxn.
Both numbers are true at the same time, and reconciling them is the real story of this Ahmedabad-founded cloud-kitchen operator. Ghost Kitchens does not run a chain of restaurants so much as it rents out brands, recipes and a booking layer to other people’s kitchens — which is why the network can grow fast while the company’s own booked revenue does not move in a straight line.
Quick facts
| Company | Ghost Kitchens India (legal entity: Ghost Kitchens Private Limited) |
| Founded | Incorporated 19 October 2019, Ahmedabad, Gujarat (CIN U74999GJ2019PTC110428) |
| Founder(s) | Karan Tanna (Karanraj Jayendrabhai Tanna), Founder-CEO |
| Businesses | 12+ delivery-first food brands including Bad Boy Pizza, Speak Burgers, Starboy Pizza, New York Waffles & Dinges, KBOB’s and The Black Chimney |
| Latest FY revenue | ₹28.38 crore for FY25 (year ended 31 March 2025), down 11.0% year-on-year (standalone RoC filing, as per Tracxn) |
| Latest FY profit/loss | Not separately disclosed; EBITDA fell at a 37% one-year CAGR alongside the FY25 revenue decline (Tracxn); a detailed net profit/loss figure is not publicly available |
| Listed | Private (unlisted) |
| Market value / last valuation | Not publicly disclosed |
| Key shareholders / CEO | Karanraj Jayendrabhai Tanna (Managing Director); investors include GVFL, NB Ventures, LetsVenture, Lead Angels, Yuj Ventures, Dholakia Ventures and actor Rana Daggubati |
What they do
Ghost Kitchens India builds delivery-only food brands and places them inside kitchens it does not always own. Some of those kitchens belong to the company itself; most belong to independent restaurants and cloud-kitchen operators who sign up as “fulfillment partners” and cook Ghost Kitchens’ menus — Starboy Pizza, New York Waffles & Dinges, Speak Burgers by Chef Vicky Ratnani, Bad Boy Pizza and others — alongside their own food, listed on Swiggy and Zomato. The pitch to a partner kitchen is simple: use spare stove-time and an existing FSSAI licence to sell a second, third or fourth brand without the capital cost of opening a new outlet, while Ghost Kitchens supplies the recipes, packaging, marketing and a technology layer that tracks sales and operations.
The origin
Karan Tanna did not start in food delivery. His first venture, an Ahmedabad restaurant called Goodies, closed after partnership disputes — a phase he has described as one of the low points of his career, as per Restaurant India. He returned with Kutchi King, a Gujarat-born quick-service chain that he helped scale past 200 outlets, only to watch that growth outrun the systems holding it together; Tanna later called the expansion unsustainable.
That failure produced the idea that actually worked. Tanna noticed that India, despite its population, had no homegrown restaurant brand running 1,000-plus outlets, and traced the gap to weak franchise-management infrastructure rather than weak food. In January 2016 he launched Yellow Tie Hospitality, a franchise-management company that built supply chains and management software for other brands’ outlets instead of owning restaurants outright. Yellow Tie grew fast — Restaurant India reported 200% year-on-year growth with EBITA margins of 22 to 25% within its first years, across brands such as Genuine Broaster Chicken, Just Falafel and Dhadoom. The lesson Tanna carried forward from Yellow Tie into Ghost Kitchens, founded in October 2019, was the same one: it is often more profitable to operate other people’s real estate and staff than to build your own.
The struggle years
Ghost Kitchens’ own record shows two distinct near-misses rather than one clean growth line. The first was structural: Kutchi King’s 200-plus-outlet expansion in the years before 2015 collapsed under its own weight, by Tanna’s own account, because growth outpaced operating discipline. The second shows up in the company’s audited numbers two decades later — Ghost Kitchens Private Limited’s own RoC filings put FY24 operating revenue at under ₹1 crore, a figure Tofler records as a 93.79% year-on-year fall, with net profit also down sharply the same year. That filing sits at odds with Tracxn’s separate figure of roughly ₹31.9 crore of implied FY24 revenue (derived from its reported FY25 figure of ₹28.38 crore and an 11.0% year-on-year decline) — the two aggregators cannot be reconciled from public data, and Ghost Kitchens Private Limited does not publish a consolidated statement that would settle the gap. What both filings agree on is direction: the standalone legal entity’s disclosed numbers have been going down, not up, even as the company’s press releases describe a fast-growing partner network.
- Circa 2014-2015: Kutchi King’s expansion past 200 outlets becomes commercially unsustainable, per Tanna’s own account to Restaurant India.
- FY24 (year ended 31 March 2024): Ghost Kitchens Private Limited’s operating revenue falls to under ₹1 crore, down 93.79% year-on-year, with net profit down 143.27% year-on-year (Tofler).
The turning point
The pivot that mattered was less a single dramatic event than a change of ownership structure: instead of running Ghost Kitchens as one growing chain, Tanna turned it into an acquirer and brand-licensor. Between 2022 and 2024 the company bought a technology company (WTF, 2022) to build its own in-house SaaS for sales and operations tracking; acquired Speak Burgers, the Chef Vicky Ratnani-fronted burger brand, in February 2023; and, in April 2024, bought Shy Tiger Brands, an Ahmedabad cloud-kitchen operator founded in 2018 by Milapsinh Jadeja running five kitchens under the KBOB’s and The Black Chimney labels at a reported annualised run rate of ₹5 crore, as per Entrackr. Each deal added brands and kitchen capacity without Ghost Kitchens having to build either from zero — and each followed within weeks of its February 2024 Series A, when the company said it was targeting profitability within 12 to 15 months and an annualised revenue run rate of ₹200 crore within two years, per Inc42.
The money behind it
Ghost Kitchens has raised a total of $6.27 million (about ₹60 crore) across four rounds from roughly 35 investors, as per Tracxn and CB Insights. Its first funding round closed around July 2020.
- Seed rounds (2020-2023): about $1.2 million raised across two earlier rounds from Yuj Ventures (the family office tied to Xander Group founder Sid Yog), Dholakia Ventures, Salarpuria Family Office, Tremis Capital, angel investor Shankar Narayanan and others (Tracxn/CB Insights).
- Series A (February 2024): $5 million, structured as a mix of equity and debt, led by GVFL Limited (formerly Gujarat Venture Finance Ltd), with NB Ventures, LetsVenture and Lead Angels joining, and existing backers Yuj Ventures, Dholakia Ventures and actor-investor Rana Daggubati participating again (Entrackr, Inc42).
- Total raised: $6.27 million over four rounds from about 35 investors (Tracxn).
- Valuation: not publicly disclosed; Tracxn’s own valuation field is redacted as of its last-recorded data point (August 2023).
What each backer added was more than a cheque. GVFL, a Gujarat state-linked venture fund, brought the Series A’s lead and a home-state network as Ghost Kitchens doubled down on Ahmedabad through the Shy Tiger acquisition two months later. Rana Daggubati’s involvement predates the 2024 round — a December 2021 Ghost Kitchens press release already quoted him discussing “food brands of the future” in connection with the company’s fulfillment-partner brands — and he re-upped as an existing investor in the Series A, giving the celebrity-brand strategy (later visible in Badshah’s Bad Boy Pizza and a Mr Faisu menu tie-up) a name attached from early on.
How it makes money
Ghost Kitchens earns in layers rather than from one clean transaction. Money comes in from consumers ordering on Swiggy and Zomato under one of its brand names; a share of that order value is owed straight back out to the aggregator before Ghost Kitchens or its kitchen partner sees a rupee.
- Aggregator commission: industry estimates put Swiggy and Zomato’s cut at roughly 15-30% of order value depending on the restaurant and city, before GST on that commission is added (Menuviel, 2025) — a structural cost every cloud-kitchen brand in India carries, not one specific to Ghost Kitchens.
- Company-owned kitchens: full order revenue flows to Ghost Kitchens, minus food cost, packaging, delivery-platform commission and kitchen rent/labour — the highest-control, highest-capital slice of the business.
- Fulfillment-partner network: partner kitchens keep the bulk of each order’s margin for using their own space and staff to cook a Ghost Kitchens brand; Ghost Kitchens’ own take is a smaller technology/brand fee rather than the full order value, which is the main reason network growth (more partner outlets, more orders) does not translate one-for-one into the parent company’s booked revenue.
- Brand and retail licensing: celebrity-fronted brands such as Bad Boy Pizza (with Badshah) extend into owned or franchised retail stores, aiming at a different, higher-margin, dine-in-adjacent revenue line than pure delivery.
The part outsiders tend to get wrong is assuming “1,200 restaurants across 40 cities” means 1,200 Ghost Kitchens-run locations. In practice the great majority of that footprint is other operators’ existing kitchens, which is precisely why the model is described as asset-light — and precisely why its top-line accounting looks different from a chain that owns what it cooks in.
The numbers
Ghost Kitchens Private Limited is a closely held company, and detailed, reconciled multi-year profit-and-loss data is not freely available from public filings aggregators. The two years for which figures could be found conflict sharply and are shown separately below, with their source, rather than merged into a single invented trend.
| Fiscal year | Revenue (₹ crore) | Year-on-year change | Source |
| FY24 (ended 31 Mar 2024) | Under ₹1 crore | Down 93.79% | Tofler |
| FY24 (ended 31 Mar 2024), implied | ≈ ₹31.9 crore | — | Derived from Tracxn’s FY25 figure and stated decline |
| FY25 (ended 31 Mar 2025) | ₹28.38 crore | Down 11.0% | Tracxn |
Net profit or loss is not disclosed with confidence by either aggregator beyond directional signals: Tofler records FY24 net profit down 143.27% year-on-year (consistent with a swing into loss), and Tracxn records EBITDA falling at a 37% one-year compound rate into FY25. Given the scale of disagreement between the two sources on FY24 revenue, this piece treats only the FY25 figure of ₹28.38 crore as reasonably reliable, and does not present a fabricated three- or four-year trend line.
Where the money comes from
The surprise in Ghost Kitchens’ numbers is the gap between reach and ownership.
- Company-owned cloud kitchens: 15, located in Mumbai and Ahmedabad, as of the company’s February 2024 funding disclosure (Entrackr).
- Partner network (“internet restaurants”): 1,200-plus, spread across 40 Indian cities, as of the same February 2024 disclosure — roughly 80 partner kitchens for every one Ghost Kitchens owns.
- Brand portfolio: 12 delivery-first brands reported as of July 2025, including Bad Boy Pizza, Starboy Pizza, Speak Burgers, New York Waffles & Dinges, KBOB’s and The Black Chimney (EventFAQs, Loudest).
- Order volume: about 1.2 lakh orders a month, up 60% year-on-year, as of July 2025 — a company-stated figure reported identically by two outlets (EventFAQs, Loudest).
- Retail/offline push: Speak Burgers targeted 25 offline stores within 18-24 months of its February 2023 acquisition; Bad Boy Pizza is targeting 50 outlets across India’s top five metros and ₹150 crore in annualised revenue within three years of its July 2025 launch (Inc42, Snackfax).
Read together, these figures say that Ghost Kitchens’ growth is happening mostly in a layer — the partner network and brand licences — that does not sit on its own balance sheet the way a chain of owned restaurants would. That is the business model working as designed; it is also why order-volume growth and RoC-filed revenue can move in opposite directions in the same period.
The risks
- Filed revenue is shrinking, not growing: Ghost Kitchens Private Limited’s own RoC filings show FY25 revenue down 11.0% year-on-year to ₹28.38 crore, with EBITDA falling at a steeper 37% one-year CAGR (Tracxn) — a disclosed trend that runs against the growth narrative in the company’s press releases.
- Aggregator dependence: the company’s brands are discovered and delivered almost entirely through Swiggy and Zomato, whose commissions are estimated industry-wide at 15-30% of order value plus GST (Menuviel, 2025); any rise in that take rate compresses margins for Ghost Kitchens and its partner kitchens alike, and neither platform’s fee structure is within the company’s control.
- Acquisition-and-integration load: three acquisitions in three years (WTF in 2022, Speak Burgers in February 2023, Shy Tiger Brands in April 2024) have to be absorbed by a company whose own standalone revenue is in the tens of crores, raising the question of whether deal integration is outrunning organic cash generation, given the disclosed FY24-25 revenue decline.
- Celebrity-marketing dependence: flagship launches such as Bad Boy Pizza lean on star power (Badshah) and viral campaigns (a reported 8 million campaign views, per Snackfax) to drive initial demand; that kind of attention is not guaranteed to convert into the repeat, everyday delivery orders a cloud-kitchen brand needs to cover fixed kitchen and packaging costs.
The takeaway
The lesson in Ghost Kitchens India is not that asset-light franchising works — Tanna had already learned, and half-broken, that lesson once with Kutchi King before he built Yellow Tie Hospitality and then Ghost Kitchens around it deliberately. The sharper lesson is that reach and revenue are not the same measurement. A company can genuinely grow its order volume 60% year-on-year, add cities, sign new partner kitchens and land a rapper as a co-brand, while the audited entity that owns all of it reports a filed revenue decline in the same stretch. Both facts can be true, and a franchise-style network built on other people’s kitchens will often show its growth in the network’s numbers long before — or instead of — the parent’s own books.
Frequently asked questions
Who founded Ghost Kitchens India?
Karan Tanna (Karanraj Jayendrabhai Tanna) founded Ghost Kitchens India, incorporated as Ghost Kitchens Private Limited on 19 October 2019 in Ahmedabad. He previously built Kutchi King and Yellow Tie Hospitality.
How much funding has Ghost Kitchens India raised?
A total of $6.27 million across four rounds from about 35 investors, as per Tracxn, including a $5 million Series A in February 2024 led by GVFL with participation from NB Ventures, LetsVenture, Lead Angels and existing backers Yuj Ventures, Dholakia Ventures and Rana Daggubati.
What brands does Ghost Kitchens India operate?
As of July 2025, the company reported 12 delivery-first brands, including Bad Boy Pizza, Starboy Pizza, Speak Burgers by Chef Vicky Ratnani, New York Waffles & Dinges, KBOB’s and The Black Chimney (the last two added via the 2024 Shy Tiger Brands acquisition).
Is Ghost Kitchens India profitable?
Not on current public disclosures. Its standalone RoC filings show FY25 revenue down 11.0% year-on-year to ₹28.38 crore with EBITDA falling at a 37% one-year CAGR, per Tracxn; the company had targeted profitability within 12-15 months of its February 2024 Series A, per Inc42, though no subsequent filing confirms that target was met.
Has Ghost Kitchens India appeared on Shark Tank India or is it based in Kolkata?
No public record supports either claim. Corporate filings and company disclosures place Ghost Kitchens Private Limited’s registered office in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, and its operational base in Mumbai and Ahmedabad; no Shark Tank India episode featuring the company could be verified, so this piece does not treat either claim as fact.
Sources
Figures are as of September 2026. Currency converted at $1 ≈ ₹96.0 as of 18 September 2026 (Trading Economics).
- Inc42, “Ghost Kitchens Bags $5 Mn To Help Restaurants Boost Revenue”, February 2024
- Entrackr, “Ghost Kitchens India raises $5 Mn in Series A”, February 2024
- Entrackr, “Ghost Kitchens India acquires Shy Tiger Brands”, April 2024
- Tracxn, “Ghost Kitchens Private Limited” company and financials profile, accessed September 2026
- Tofler, “Ghost Kitchens Private Limited” financials profile, accessed September 2026
- CB Insights, “Ghost Kitchen India” company profile, accessed September 2026
- Restaurant India, “From Shutting down His First Restaurant to Building Up a 200% year-on-year Growth Business” (Karan Tanna profile)
- Snackfax, “Badshah Brings Fire To India’s Pizza Scene: Launches ‘Badboy Pizza’ With Ghost Kitchens, Sets ₹150 Cr Target”, July 2025
- EventFAQs India, “Badshah Launches ‘Badboy Pizza’, Eyes Big Slice Of India’s QSR Market”, 7 July 2025
- Loudest.in, “Badshah Launches Badboy Pizza QSR Chain, Targets 50 Outlets And Rs 150 Crore Revenue In 3 Years”, 7 July 2025
- The Print / ANI press release, “Ghost Kitchens launches its Fulfillment Partner program in Delhi NCR and Gujarat”, December 2021
- Menuviel, “Swiggy Fees and Commissions for Restaurants: Detailed 2025 Guide”
- Ghost Kitchens India, company website (ghostkitchensindia.com), accessed September 2026
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