§1What this business is

You cook in a small kitchen only for online delivery; there is no dining space. Orders come through Zomato/Swiggy and your own WhatsApp/website. The menu should be small, the taste reliable and the packaging good.

§2Is it right for you?

Who it is for

Someone who cooks well and understands online ratings and marketing.

Who it is not for

Someone who does not work out the numbers after aggregator commission.

Advantages

  • No dining hall cost
  • Start with little capital
  • Several brands/menus from one kitchen
  • Easy to improve the menu using data

Drawbacks

  • Aggregator commission of 18–25% eats the margin
  • Orders stop if the rating falls
  • Marketing/discount costs
  • Very crowded — in every city

Skills you need

  • Cooking & menu engineering
  • Food costing
  • Packaging
  • Online ratings/ads

Why difficulty 2/5: Cheap to start, hard to last (commission + ratings).

§3Market

Who buys

  • Customers ordering food for home or office delivery

How it sells

  • Food delivery apps (they ask for your FSSAI number before listing)
  • Orders on your own phone number
  • Your own website, later

Good to know

  • Delivery app commission is often 18–25% of the order, depending on app and city.
  • Lean set-ups usually see healthy margins after a steady 25–40 orders a day.
  • A shared or rented licensed kitchen cuts set-up cost.

§4Raw material & machinery

ItemQtyCost
Kitchen equipment: basic stove, fridge, exhaust and utensils—₹80,000–₹1.5 lakh (indicative, non-official)

From: Shriram Finance – How to open a cloud kitchen business with less than five lakhs (2026) — private guide — confirm locally

  • Packaging, branding and first stock of raw material₹40,000–₹80,000 together (indicative, non-official)

From: Shriram Finance – How to open a cloud kitchen business with less than five lakhs (2026) — private guide — confirm locally

§5Licences & registration

  1. FSSAI registration/licence
  2. Trade/health licence (municipal corporation)
  3. Shop & Establishment
  4. GST
  5. Fire safety where applicable

We can do this registration for you

§6Schemes & subsidies

₹2.5–5 L: CM-YUVA (UP) and MUDRA Shishu/Kishore are best; PMEGP service sector.

§7Money

How the investment is worked out: NON-OFFICIAL ESTIMATE. Sum of line items in Shriram Finance article (Jul 2026): kitchen equipment ₹0.8–1.5 L, rent & deposit ₹0.3–1 L, FSSAI ₹100–7,500, packaging/branding ₹0.4–0.8 L, working capital 2–3 months ₹1–1.5 L.

Lender's blog article, not an official project profile.

How to prepare a loan file

§8Export potential

A local service business; it has no goods to export.

§9Risks — where people fail

  • Platform dependency
  • Low ratings
  • Food safety
  • Thin margins after commission

§1030 / 60 / 90-day plan

A general plan that applies to any business. A plan for this business will be added after research.

  1. Days 1–30: Visit a working cloud kitchen unit, ask 10 buyers about price and quantity, and get quotations from 3 suppliers.
  2. Days 31–60: Udyam and the licences you need (FSSAI registration/licence, Trade/health licence (municipal corporation)), a project report (DPR), and the scheme or loan file.
  3. Days 61–90: Space and machines, trial production, and first deliveries to 10 customers.

§11Who to connect with

Not verified yet

Associations, clusters and training institutes — the directory is being built. Connect

§12Watch

There is no episode on this business yet. Shows are coming soon on the Podcast page.

Want to start Cloud Kitchen?

DPR, loan file or registration — ask us on WhatsApp.

Get a DPR / loan file made

Sources

  1. Shriram Finance – How to open a cloud kitchen business with less than five lakhs (2026)

Data review: 6 October 2026. Spotted a mistake? Report it. For information only — not legal or financial advice.