Indian-origin woman shares how she built $2.8 million-a-year ice cream business in US
An Indian-origin entrepreneur in the US has shared how she built a multi-million-dollar ice cream business inspired Indian flavours despite having no prior experience in the food industry.Today, Malai has four physical stores across New York, Philadelphia and Washington DC. (LinkedIn/Pooja Bavishi)Pooja Bavishi, 42, is the founder and CEO of New York-based ice cream brand Malai, which she founded in 2015. According to CNBC Make It, her company generated $2.8 million in sales in 2025 and turned profitable after years of expansion and experimentation. Today, Malai has four physical stores across New York, Philadelphia and Washington DC, along with wholesale and e-commerce operations. The company is known for using Indian-inspired flavours like cardamom, saffron, rose and nutmeg in its ice creams.“Malai is so different because we go beyond chocolate and vanilla,” Bavishi told CNBC Make It. “We introduce flavours like cardamom, rose, saffron, (and) nutmeg into ice cream — flavours that are so ubiquitous to so many people around the country and the world that we want to mainstream into American flavours.”Bavishi said she had always dreamed of building a business around desserts but only started pursuing it later in life. Before launching Malai, she studied urban planning at The London School of Economics and worked as a civil rights project coordinator at a nonprofit organisation in Washington DC.She said that the idea for the company came during a dinner party in 2014 while she was pursuing an MBA at New York University. She made homemade ice cream using ginger and star anise, and the response from friends encouraged her to explore the concept further.“I just remember my friends being like, ‘We’ve never had anything like this before,’” she said.(Also Read:
