Mukunda's cofounder bets Indian kitchens want software-upgradeable appliances

AI-powered chimneys, hobtops and cooktops designed and manufactured in Bengaluru for Indian cooking

Indian households will pay INR 9,000-15,000 to make their existing kitchens smart — with appliances that improve via software like phones, not one-shot imports

$2M seed round led by Fireside Ventures, with Dharana Capital and prominent angels participating

Eshwar K Vikas and Sudeep Sabat built Mukunda Foods into an INR 50 Cr food-robotics brand deployed in more than 25,000 restaurants. While raising capital they were pushed toward consumers, so Vikas and Mukunda CTO Rakesh Patil visited homes, found kitchens untouched by technology, and launched a project under Mukunda in January 2024 with two products.

Six months in, the project spun out as Beyond Appliances, a standalone venture founded in August 2024 by Vikas and Patil (who remained Mukunda's CTO), while Sabat stayed with Mukunda. Products include the Orion Android-powered chimney with a 7-inch touchscreen, the Elara that uses sound sensors to count pressure-cooker whistles and coach cooking, the Dorado hobtop with timer-controlled burners and flame-failure gas safety, and a patented 3D-suction redesign for spice-heavy Indian food.

India's smart-home boom skipped the kitchen: homes got disrupted everywhere except where cooking happens

Most competing brands import and trade Chinese products without R&D, leaving a gap for engineered-for-India hardware

Mukunda's food robotics gave the team sensor data, chef networks and manufacturing capability competitors lack

Software-upgradeable units and recurring launches defend against imitation better than any single patent

The smartphone model applied to appliances — software upgrades, exchange programs, recurring releases — turns kitchen hardware into a relationship, if imitation doesn't outrun the roadmap.

As of March 2025 Beyond Appliances was manufacturing mostly in-house in Bengaluru, planning six more SKUs across chimney, hob and cooktop categories, an in-built AI Chef with cameras and sensors for real-time guidance, and a long-term target of INR 100 Cr revenue within three years.