It took Peesapaty, a former scientist at ICRISAT in Hyderabad, another two years to give commercial shape to his idea. Peesapaty began by checking out the suitability of various cereal flours—wheat, rice and sorghum (johar)—as base for his edible cutlery. He finally zeroed in on sorghum as the base flour. Vegetable pulp—spinach, beetroot and carrot—were used to add colour and nutritive value to the cutlery. Spinach gave it a green shade, beetroot red and carrots brought out a yellow tinge.

The production line, comprising blenders, slicers, dyes and an oven, had to be designed and calibrated to ensure that the spoons retained their hardness, while not losing out on their taste and nutritive value.

Peesapaty aims to capture a slice of the domestic plastic cutlery market, which is

Facts And Figures Business Producing edible cutlery Based Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh Year of inception 2008 Clients Five-star hotels, sweet shops Entry barriers Applied for process patent; uniqueness of dye and production process Capital invested Rs 50 lakh Revenues Rs 5 lakh Market potential Rs 250 crore (India) Employees 20 (All women, except for two men) Plans Scale up; funding, marketing tie-up

estimated to be worth Rs 250 crore, and is growing at about 20% annually. He also aims to corner a part of the global disposable chopsticks market, which sees sales of around 24 billion units per annum in Japan and 35 billion units in China.

In 2006, Peesapaty applied for a process patent for producing edible cutlery. "Apart from the first-mover advantage, the flour combination, kneading process and mould designs are unique, creating substantial entry barriers for this business," Peesapaty claims, even as apron-clad staffers work on the production line at his factory in Nacharam industrial area in Hyderbabad.

The concept, however, did not exactly excite the venture capitalist community. "My funding requirement for commercial launch of the product and for brand promotion was around Rs 50 lakh to start with. But VCs typically like to invest at least $3-5 million (Rs 15-20 crore) in a project," says Peesapaty. Banks asked for collateral for loans, while the VCs wanted to see a healthy order book.

Next, he knocked on the doors of several angel investors—those with interests in real estate, the cement business and non-conventional electricity—but to no avail. "2007 was frustrating as I did not get the right investors to back me," Peesapaty recalls.

When it seemed his dream project was not getting anywhere, Peesapaty sold his flat for Rs 35 lakh in February this year. He moved to a rented house, forking out Rs 7,000 a month. This was not the first time that he had let ‘the idea’ change the course of his life. In 2006, he had resigned from his ICRISAT position to concentrate on his ambitious venture. Along with financial help from some friends and his own resources, Peesapaty commercially launched the product in April 2008. This means, of the Rs 50 lakh Peesapaty has invested in the venture so far, 70% of the funds have come from his own pocket.

In the past three months, he has targeted five-star hotels, sweet shops and organised retailers in the city. Samples have also been sent to corporate caterers, schools and housewives. Consumers in the US, Canada and Dubai have lapped up test samples picked up by some exporters, Peesapaty says. Some like Vijay Rama, a sweet-shop owner in Hyderabad, has turned serving in edible spoons into a unique selling proposition. "This has increased my brand’s equity. There are people who come from far-away places just to eat with edible spoons," he says.

The idea behind the edible cutlery was to give an alternative to people who do not want to use plastics Narayana Peesapaty, Managing Director, BK Environmental Innovations

But the frustration arising from his inability to ramp up operations still saddens Peesapaty. "The Hyderabad market itself can take 5,000 packets a day," he says. But, without sound marketing machinery, that potential will remain untapped. Peesapaty knows he still has to travel a long way before the business can be considered commercially viable. "I need to ramp up my production to 500,000 spoons a day, and invest in marketing and promotion in export-oriented markets such as Japan," he says.

To scale up the business, he has worked out plans for a franchisee model that will see him offering machinery and trained staff, while the marketing support will be expected of the local partner. "I am a technologist, and I want to focus my attention on innovations and quality. I wish to entrust marketing to a partner," he says.

Talks with a US-based venture capitalist for fresh infusion of funds are also at an advanced stage. Suneel Parasnis, Country Director, New Venture India, a networking forum which facilitates small and medium enterprises to connect with investors, feels some tweaking of the business plan to suit Indian needs may help. Peesapaty too is willing to go that extra mile. "Though selling my house was a big decision, I know that if the business works, I can afford to buy 20 such houses," says the serial innovator.

Peesapaty is now in the process of developing an edible plate that can also be tweaked into a ‘desi pizza’. No doubt this is an interesting innovation, but the edible cutlery concept pioneered by Peesapaty may have to wait just that little while longer to catch on.