When Tanvi Chowdhri left behind her career as a hedge fund trader on Wall Street, the move surprised many around her. Armed with a mechanical engineering degree from Carnegie Mellon University, she had followed what most would consider the ideal professional journey: a prestigious education, a career in finance, and long-term stability ahead. But somewhere between her trading job and New York’s bustling food scene, a different kind of curiosity had begun to take shape. “I was always a foodie at heart. Growing up, I think I came from a very food loving family where we used to cook meals together, and all the travels revolved around us exploring the local cuisines wherever we went,” Tanvi says. Living in New York exposed her to some of the world’s best restaurants and chefs. Tanvi started to learn culinary techniques from them, understand global food trends, and observe how successful food businesses operated. Her weekends were spent exploring restaurants, dessert cafes, etc., across the city, which eventually led to her start her own food blog. When she moved back to India, Tanvi noticed a wide gap in the country’s ice cream market. Legacy brands continued selling traditional ice cream flavours that consumers had known for generations, while premium offerings were limited to imported packaged products or regional gourmet ice cream parlours. While legacy players like Amul and Kwality Wall’s dominated the mass market, newer premium brands such as Baskin-Robbins and NIC Ice Creams were beginning to shape India’s premium and experimental dessert space. “I saw a gap where there were these mass market brands making those eight to 10 flavours, and then there were these premium ice cream brands that were perceived as expensive and imported at that point in time. So that’s what I wanted to come in and sort of be the Ben and Jerry's of India where we create something different, where we create sundaes, desserts in a tub and at affordable prices,” says Tanvi. That vision became Papacream, a dessert-first ice cream company founded in 2015. The Mumbai-based brand was built around the idea that premium desserts should feel indulgent, but not intimidating. The company balances its pricing to keep it as affordable as possible while also maintaining the quality. Single-serve ice creams are priced between Rs 120 and Rs 175, Popsicles cost Rs 95 for a two-pack, and larger tubs range from Rs 395 to Rs 695. For Tanvi, accessibility was just as important as quality, and that philosophy shaped everything—from the product strategy to the brand name itself. Instead of focusing on niche combinations, Papacream builds on flavours and combinations that consumers already love. Products like the Dark Fantasy Belgian Chocolate ice cream, Jamun Masala popsies, Hazelnut cold coffee ice cream, or a Birthday Cake Sundae are all reinterpretations of familiar nostalgic experiences. “I would never do something like a wasabi ice cream,” Tanvi says. “It may look cool on a menu, but it c
