Wakao Foods is India’s first jackfruit-based mock meat brand, founded in 2020 by lawyer-turned-entrepreneur Sairaj Dhond with a mission to make jackfruit the hero in place of meat. Offering a range of preservative-free, long shelf-life products like Raw Jack, Jack Burger Patty, and Teriyaki Jack, Wakao champions sustainable, plant-based eating that’s tasty, versatile, and homegrown. Featured on Shark Tank India, the brand has since scaled across retail, HoReCa, and global markets, carving its place as a bold and quirky pioneer in the plant-based space.
Our Approach
For Wakao, jackfruit isn’t just another ingredient - it’s the heartbeat of our brand. From our colour palette to our illustrations, every element was designed to put jackfruit at the center, not just as a meat alternative but as a symbol of who we are. That’s why we created Jack - our playful jackfruit mascot to embody everything we stand for: bold, fun, loving, and instantly recognizable. With Jack leading the way, jackfruit isn’t the side story, it’s the hero.
Jack was designed to look and feel like a true jackfruit - with a spiky outer layer, a fleshy inside, and a shape and colour palette that mirror the fruit itself. He’s playful, familiar, and instantly ties the brand back to its hero ingredient.
Jack isn’t just a mascot, he’s a character with moods - playful, thoughtful, sporty, even superhero. Each avatar makes him expressive, relatable, and a true reflection of Wakao’s fun personality. Much like Thursday itself, we thrive in the sweet spot between structure and spontaneity, where wild ideas make love to meticulous execution.
Beyond Jack himself, design system inspired by him was built - from his spiky outer layer to the warm tones of his inside. These elements shaped a series of illustrations and icons for social media highlights and digital creatives.
To keep the tone light and relatable, we took founder Sairaj Dhond’s Shark Tank pitch and reimagined it as memes. This playful spin not only matched the brand’s cheerful personality but also made the brand more approachable and shareable, driving strong engagement and impact online.
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To fix the confusion caused by the old “ready to eat” packaging, we repositioned Wakao as “ready to cook” and launched Cook With Wakao to make cooking an experience, not just a product.We shared samples with friends and family, encouraging them to cook and post online. Soon people were creating everything from regional dishes to desserts, and organic customers joined in. What began as a fix quickly grew into a community movement that rebuilt trust and boosted engagement.
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