NYUCT Design Labs launches Edible Ventures™, a first-of-its-kind, full stack design and development cell for food & restaurant brands

MUMBAI, India, March 19, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- NYUCT Design Labs, India's first Venture Design and Experience Innovation Collective, announced the launch of Edible Ventures™, a first-of-its-kind, full stack Design and Development Cell for culinary ventures, restaurants and premium experiences.

This turnkey development cell works as a strategic growth partner with hospitality chains, founders or chef-entrepreneurs, brands and institutions, to design, build, launch, and scale food ventures, restaurant brands & experiences through an integrated, end-to-end approach.

With researchers, food scientists, product developers, menu engineers, architects & spatial designers, business designers, branding experts, experience designers, and a community of makers, Edible Ventures™ ensures that agile development of food ventures and brands is seen as a system design rather than as fragmented components. This ensures that the original ideas of founders and clients transform into profitable, desirable and scalable food businesses, without losing cultural depth, operational clarity, branding rigour or execution discipline.

An industry-focused, specialized cell, Edible Ventures™ is helmed by a team that has deep, hands-on experience. It is designed to help food investors, entrepreneurs & hospitality businesses move from intent to last mile business execution with an integrated cell that leaves nothing off the menu when building a food venture or reimagining it.

Edible Ventures™ is currently working with a spectrum of clients, including luxury hospitality chains, food entrepreneurs, and distillers, to develop unique experiences and brands. It is also engaged with a few state governments to help them in building capabilities in culinary tourism, revivalism of lost cuisines, and conceptualise unique visitor experiences around food, community & culture. Having venture designed for Himmaleh Distillery (Kumaon&I, Bandarful, Neoli, Darma), positioned and designed brands for luxury hospitality chains, incubated micro-ventures like Dongaon Local Ghee and currently incubating a social agro-led brand and venture at Ratnagiri with a community of 1000 women, the team considers food as not only a very valuable heritage of the country but also a means to unlock entrepreneurship.

Addressing structural gaps in the system, Edible Ventures™ works as a strategic growth and design partner in a format where sourcing, menus, operations, spaces, brand, experience, and economics are designed together rather than assembled in fragments.

"The business of food isn't just about flavour or service. Edible Ventures is a unique, turnkey venture development cell to help food businesses and brands move from instinct-driven decisions to intentional, well-designed ventures and premium experiences. It's about system design, and how original concepts & ideas can translate into high quality experiences and brands that drive growth and leverage our unique culinary heritage," said Manojeet Bhujabal, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at NYUCT Design Labs.

Edible Ventures™ works as a strategic development partner with the following areas of focus:

1. Collaborates with large hospitality chains, real estate businesses to create and design new restaurant brands. innovations and experiences with an agile approach, supported by a maker community.
2. Enables food entrepreneurs and chef-preneurs to build, brand and scale right with professional expertise in product development, design, branding, marketing, digital applications and agile innovations.
3. Helps brands with market positioning & development, and creates innovations and experiences.
4. Helps state governments and tourism departments to develop strategic capabilities, shape their culinary heritage, build local brands and design experiences for visitors.

Unlike traditional consultants or creative houses, the work of Edible Ventures™ spans the full spectrum of a food venture - from product research, opportunity mapping and shaping concepts to aligning food-to-table realities, designing operations, branding and experience design, to building systems that can scale across formats, locations, or time.

Dr. Samir Mulaokar, Patron Chef, Operations Lead and Partner at Edible Ventures™, added, "A well-designed food venture doesn't just launch. It builds an ecosystem of desire, authenticity, consistency, and repeatability. What's often missing in the food and hospitality industry is continuity between idea, execution, and scale. Edible Ventures bridges that gap by integrating creative thinking with operational excellence and brand focus."

With Edible Ventures, NYUCT Design Labs partners with founders and hospitality chains seeking to build new ventures and food experiences for longevity and scale. It is a specialized extension of NYUCT Design Labs' Venture Design and Innovation practice, bringing the firm's multidisciplinary, maker-led approach into the food and hospitality domain. NYUCT Design Labs has previously worked across ventures that intersected food, culture, experience design and brand development such as Outpost 12 in Kanha, Himmaleh Spirits and more. Its partners and leads have created luxury experiences and F&B brands that have wooed global audiences.

Says Partner and Hospitality Lead, Shifaali Sinha, who has led large-scale growth mandates at Taj, Marriott, and amã Stays & Trails, "We partner with founders and institutions building future-ready food businesses, shaping premium brands that are commercially robust, strategically positioned, and designed for long-term relevance."

Food and dining are the new adventures, for both residents and travellers. The world over and including in India's bustling metropolitan cities, a culinary revolution is unfolding with both large brands and startups reimagining the gastronomic landscape. From delectable snacks to artisanal beverages, and from hyperlocal restaurants to the revival of heritage cuisines, the entrepreneurial landscape is buzzing with ideas, local flavours and innovative experiences.

India's food services market estimated at $66 billion is estimated to reach anywhere between $110- $125 billion by 2030 (Source: 'How India Eats' by Kearney). The Online Food Delivery market in India was estimated to be US$43.78bn in 2024 and projected at US$91.88bn by 2029 with expected CAGR for 2024-2029 of 15.98%.

Urban residents and food loving audiences with rising disposable incomes are looking at more premium food and dining experiences, rediscovering heritage cuisine and expecting more immersive restaurants. The addressable customer base is expected to grow to 43 crores from the current 34 crores. Such a large TAM, strong growth, surge in cloud kitchens and increasing penetration of distribution with players like delivery platforms (Zomato made 640 million deliveries across 800 cities in 2022-2023), makes this an extremely exciting investment space.

Be it luxury restaurants, new hospitality formats, local food brands, menu innovations, digital transformation or exceptional curated experiences and pop ups, the action is intense and the seek for new adventures is real.

Businesses or founders looking for the right strategic partner to design and develop their dream venture or brand can reach out to Edible Ventures™ at https://www.edibleventures.co/contact.html. 

For media inquiries, please contact [email protected]. 

For more information on Edible Ventures™ visit www.edibleventures.co.

About NYUCT Design Labs

NYUCT Design Labs is a full stack Design & Innovation firm, venture development studio and makers-community. For new ventures, experiences and futures.

It helps businesses, institutions & founders, transform exponential ideas into launch-ready ventures, brands, products, experiences, and platforms. From blueprint to launch.

Its work spans multiple sectors and industries including retail, luxury, finance, government, tourism, hospitality, real estate, travel and discovery, healthcare, lifestyle, and the impact sector.

Helmed by multidisciplinary professionals with a collective industry experience of more than 188 years, lived between a world of business and creativity, it understands both scale and agility. Along with a diverse makers community, it stays mission-central about unlocking innovation for forward thinking organizations and founders, helping them move from concept to market with clarity and speed.

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