Archive · 11 Aug 2026
School Dropout's Paneer Built Rs 10,778-Crore Milky Mist IPO
A man named Sathish Kumar left school when he was 16 to help his family.
His family lived in a town called Erode in Tamil Nadu, India, and worked with milk.
One day, Sathish noticed someone turning milk into paneer, a kind of soft cheese used in Indian cooking.
Nobody in his family knew how to make paneer, so he experimented at home using milk and vinegar.
Many tries failed, but in 1993 he finally made a 10 kg batch and carried it to Bengaluru.
Hotels and restaurants bought it, and soon he was selling lots of paneer every day.
He started a company called Milky Mist in 1997 that now makes many milk products.
The company grew very big and is now worth about Rs 10,778 crore.
On August 11, 2026, it is holding an IPO, which lets people buy small parts of the company.
School dropout Sathish Kumar T. left school at 16 to help his family's struggling milk business in Erode, Tamil Nadu.
In 1993, he carried his first 10 kg batch of homemade paneer to Bengaluru, where dealers sold it to hotels and restaurants.
The Milky Mist brand was created in 1997 and later expanded to curd, butter, ghee, cheese, yoghurt, ice cream and UHT products.
Revenue rose from Rs 1,826.86 crore in 2024 to Rs 3,145.01 crore in 2026, while profit after tax grew from Rs 19.44 crore to Rs 127.01 crore.
Milky Mist, valued at Rs 10,778 crore, is launching a Rs 1,553-crore IPO on August 11, 2026.
- Who
- Sathish Kumar T., a school dropout from Erode, Tamil Nadu, and the founder of Milky Mist.
- What
- Milky Mist, a dairy company built from a single 10 kg paneer batch, is launching a Rs 1,553-crore IPO.
- When
- The IPO is on August 11, 2026; Kumar made his first paneer batch in 1993 and created the Milky Mist brand in 1997.
- Where
- Erode, Tamil Nadu, where the business began, and Bengaluru, where the first paneer was sold.
- Why
- Kumar saw that paneer offered better value and margins than liquid milk, which spoiled quickly and faced competition.
- Founder
- Sathish Kumar T.
- IPO amount
- Rs 1,553 crore
- Fresh issue
- Rs 1,428 crore
- Offer for sale
- Rs 125 crore
- IPO date
- August 11, 2026
- Company valuation
- Rs 10,778 crore
- Revenue (2026)
- Rs 3,145.01 crore
- First paneer batch
- 10 kg in 1993