From ₹10 a day to ₹681 crore food empire: How PC Musthafa, a school dropout build iD Fresh Food?

A boy who once left school after failing Class 6 to work as a coolie on a Kerala coffee plantation is now the co-founder of iD Fresh Food, a ready-to-cook brand that clocked ₹ 681.38 crore in revenue in FY25. The story, recently shared on X by user @VikasAlwys, has gone viral for its reminder of how one teacher’s belief can alter a life’s trajectory.

A childhood in Wayanad, and a second chance at school

PC Musthafa grew up in Chennalode near Kalpetta in Wayanad, where his father had studied only till Class 4 and worked as a plantation labourer, while his mother never attended school. With the family surviving on about ₹ 10 a day, education felt like a luxury; after failing Class 6, Musthafa dropped out to help his father earn.

That could have been the end of his schooling. Instead, a teacher began tracking down dropouts, found Musthafa working, and convinced his parents to send him back—paying for his books when money was the barrier. Musthafa returned, topped his classes, went on to study engineering at NIT Calicut and later completed an MBA at IIM Bangalore.

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From software jobs abroad to a 50 sq ft kitchen in Bengaluru

After graduation, Musthafa worked as a software engineer and took up roles abroad, but in 2005 he returned to Bengaluru to build something of his own. Along with four cousins—Abdul Nazer, Shamsudeen TK, Jafar TK and Noushad TA—he launched iD Fresh Food from a 50 sq ft kitchen, starting with fresh idli–dosa batter. The idea was simple: make fresh, preservative-free batter conveniently available to urban households.

Scaling to Rs 681 crore, with a simple core

From that tiny kitchen, iD Fresh expanded into a wide ready-to-cook portfolio: parotas, paneer, curd, chutneys, sambar, ready mixes and filter coffee. The brand now sells across India and in markets including the UAE, UK, US, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Ireland and Singapore.

In FY25, revenue from operations rose 22% to ₹ 681.38 crore, from ₹ 557.85 crore a year earlier. The company reported a net profit of ₹ 50.75 crore, which included a one-time deferred tax credit of ₹ 24.89 crore; underlying profit was around ₹ 26 crore.

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At its core, the business is still based on the same idea that brought Musthafa back to school justifying small interventions can create outsized change. The boy who once quit to support his family now runs a company that employs people from rural India—turning a second chance into many more.