Bakeys (sometimes also known as Bakey's) is an Indian edible cutlery manufacturing startup company based in
Hyderabad
Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...
,
Telangana
Telangana (; , ) is a state in India situated on the south-central stretch of the Indian peninsula on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the eleventh-largest state and the twelfth-most populated state in India with a geographical area of and ...
. Bakeys was founded in 2010 by former
ICRISAT
The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) is an international organization which conducts agricultural research for rural development, headquartered in Patancheru (Hyderabad, Telangana, India) with several re ...
researcher Narayana Peesapaty as an eco-friendly alternative to disposable utensils prepared with plastic, wood and bamboo, such as bamboo
chopsticks
Chopsticks ( or ; Pinyin: ''kuaizi'' or ''zhu'') are shaped pairs of equal-length sticks of Chinese origin that have been used as kitchen and eating utensils in most of East and Southeast Asia for over three millennia. They are held in the domi ...
.
Out of business
Since 2017 the Kickstarter linked to the business has not been updated due to complications and fraud, as stated i this newspaper
Products
Bakeys uses different types of
flours
Flour is a powder made by grinding raw grains, roots, beans, nuts, or seeds. Flours are used to make many different foods. Cereal flour, particularly wheat flour, is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many cultu ...
to bake single-use edible spoons, forks and chopsticks which can be consumed after their intended use. Since 2010, it has sold more than 1.5 million pieces of cutlery throughout India. As of April 2016, the company only markets edible
spoon
A spoon is a utensil consisting of a shallow bowl (also known as a head), oval or round, at the end of a handle. A type of cutlery (sometimes called flatware in the United States), especially as part of a table setting, place setting, it is used ...
s, but has plans to expand its operations to begin distribution of
fork
In cutlery or kitchenware, a fork (from la, furca ' pitchfork') is a utensil, now usually made of metal, whose long handle terminates in a head that branches into several narrow and often slightly curved tines with which one can spear foods ...
s and
chopstick
Chopsticks ( or ; Pinyin: ''kuaizi'' or ''zhu'') are shaped pairs of equal-length sticks of Chinese origin that have been used as kitchen and eating utensils in most of East and Southeast Asia for over three millennia. They are held in the do ...
s with income from a
Kickstarter
Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, K ...
funding campaign. As of April 2016, the company only ships its products within India.
The products are vegetarian, and are manufactured using with all-natural ingredients, (primarily)
sorghum
''Sorghum'' () is a genus of about 25 species of flowering plants in the grass family ( Poaceae). Some of these species are grown as cereals for human consumption and some in pastures for animals. One species is grown for grain, while many ot ...
(jowar), and other types of flours such as wheat, rice, and millet. The spoons have a shelf-life of 24 months and are so made that they will naturally decompose between 3 and 7 days after use if not consumed. The spoons are manufactured in several flavors, such as
mint
MiNT is Now TOS (MiNT) is a free software alternative operating system kernel for the Atari ST system and its successors. It is a multi-tasking alternative to TOS and MagiC. Together with the free system components fVDI device drivers, XaAE ...
-
ginger
Ginger (''Zingiber officinale'') is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice and a folk medicine. It is a herbaceous perennial which grows annual pseudostems (false stems made of the rolled bases of ...
beetroot
The beetroot is the taproot portion of a beet plant, usually known in North America as beets while the vegetable is referred to as beetroot in British English, and also known as the table beet, garden beet, red beet, dinner beet or golden beet ...
Bakeys was founded by Narayana Peesapathy in 2010 in Hyderabad. In April 2016, it earned a crowd-funding of around from 1500+ backers through Ketto with its initial goal being only . Following this support, the company started a
Kickstarter
Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, K ...
campaign to increase its reach. In April 2016, the company had 30 employees. As of May 2017 the company had not yet started shipping to backers of the Kickstarter campaign, though shipments of the spoons to customers in India has continued without issue. In January 2019, Narayana Peesapaty was arrested for allegedly cheating the
Bank of Maharashtra
Bank of Maharashtra is an Indian public sector bank headquartered in Pune. The bank had 29 million customers across the country with 2022 branches as of March 2022. It has the largest network of branches of any nationalised bank in the state ...