Two friends quit jobs to launch traditional Odia sweets startup; empower home chefs

Friends Soumya Pradhan and Aurobinda Nayak began distributing rations among the needy in Bhubaneswar, Odisha when COVID-19 ravaged lives. While Aurobinda was then working for Levis Strauss & Co. as cluster manager, Soumya was sales officer of an FMCG company.

“While interacting with people at that time, we realised that while everyone loved traditional Odia sweets, they were unsure about the quality and hygiene. After our research and deliberations, we finally zeroed in on a venture around traditional Odia sweets. We quit our jobs and set up Mo Pitha in 2021,” says Aurobinda, the founder and managing director of ‘Mo Pitha’. 

Pitha are festive sweet preparations and are part of the Mahaprasada prepared every day in the kitchens of the Jagannatha Temple, Puri. 

The duo named their venture after these sweets associated with various festivals. 

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From housewives to home chefs

Soumya and Aurobinda roped in financially strained housewives adeptly making different types of pithas. With COVID having battered most households financially, the friends went door to door to find women skilled at making traditional sweets. 

Mo Pitha got off the ground with eight women home chefs who made seven sweets including arisha, kakara and enduri. 

“We opened our first outlet in Sahid Nagar that would earn revenues of Rs 3000 to Rs 4000 daily. When our average daily sales increased to about Rs 8000, we opened two more outlets,” says Soumya, the director of ‘Mo Pitha’. 

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Today, Mo Pitha clocks an annual turnover of over Rs45 lakh and works with 40 women, of which ten are employees, earning Rs10,000 to Rs12,000 monthly. The rest of them work on an order basis, earning Rs500 to Rs600 daily. 

Annapurna Nanda is one of them. Lovingly called Arisha Maushi in Nuagaon, Bhubaneswar, she is happy to earn well at 65. “I earn Rs, 600 daily on an average from Mo Pitha. My daily income exceeds Rs 1200 during Odia festivals like Pana Sankranti (observed in mid-April when Odia New Year begins), Raja Parva which celebrates womanhood and nature’s bounty, and ‘Prathamastami’ (observed on the eighth day of Odia month of Margashira-November/December for the long life and prosperity of the eldest in the family,” says Annapurna. 

The housewives-turned-home chefs prepare over 20 varieties of handcrafted sweets every morning and evening. Soumya and Aurobinda attribute the success of Mo Pitha to their home chefs between 30 and 65 years of age. The duo calls them home entrepreneurs.

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The business of traditional sweets

Mo Pitha’s sweet offerings include poda pitha, chandrakanti pitha, rasa bali, chhena poda, malai kheer and kheera poda pitha. Most of the sweets are offerings to Lord Jagannath. Poda pitha is offered to Lord Jagannath on Hera Panchami (the fifth day after the Ratha Yatra) and continues till the eve of Bahuda Yatra. Similarly, rasa bali is offered at the Temple of Baladev Jew in Kendrapara, about 61 kilometres from Cuttack.

“Most pithas are first offered to the deities in every household before they are enjoyed by others. This is an age-old practice,” says Tilotama Mishra of Nuagaon, a home chef with Mo Pitha. Her daily income exceeds Rs 900 on festive occasions.

The preparation of each traditional sweet involves a long and cumbersome process. For example, arisha, a fried pitha, is prepared from a dough of rice flour, jaggery and toasted sesame. Similarly, fried kakara is made using semolina, sugar, grated coconut, cashews, raisins, cardamoms and other ingredients.  Seeja manda is a steamed dumpling made using rice flour, moong dal,  jaggery and black pepper.

“We follow strict quality guidelines. If the quality detects any deviation in the preparation, he will not accept the lot,” says Tilotama.

Apart from sales through its outlets, Mo Pitha regularly participates in various festivals and food exhibitions, which bring in a substantial part of the revenues. The sweets are also available through Zomato. “We put up stalls throughout Bhubaneswar during Durga Puja when our daily sale is about Rs 70,000,” says Aurobinda.

Mo Pitha has also showcased its culinary magic outside of Odisha.  It took part in food festivals in Hyderabad in 2023 and Delhi in 2024, clocking a business of Rs1.5 lakh and Rs 5 lakh respectively.

Mo Pitha is set to open an outlet in Cuttak and will open one in Bengaluru before Durga Puja this year. “As per a 2016 survey report, Bengaluru had over 6 lakh Odia people. I think the number must have increased to more than 8 lakh by now. We see an immense business potential for our startup in India’s IT hub,” says Aurobindo.

(Niroj Ranjan Misra a Cuttack-based freelance writer. He writes on rural and tribal life, social issues, art and culture, and sports)

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