How this young mother became an entrepreneur with her range of organic baby food products

They say necessity is the mother of invention. And Mimmo Organics was birthed purely from a mother’s quest to find the best food for her baby. Priyanka Shetty Sridhar founded the organic baby food startup in 2018, after giving birth to her son, Neel.

When it was time for him to be weaned off breast milk, the young mother was dismayed at the options of solid foods for babies. This was especially when she tried to source nutritious food for Neel before a long flight to Australia with him. Priyanka, 35, experienced an eye-opening moment when she came face-to-face with the glaring absence of readymade solid organic food for infants, toddlers, and young children in India.

Watch Priyanka Shetty Sridhar in conversation with HerStory here:

She observed that a lot of the baby foods in the market were laden with chemicals and preservatives, while vegetables had a liberal coating of harmful pesticides. This brings up the question of whether growing children get all the vitamins and minerals essential for development from their food.

“At a time when we read and educate ourselves about the dangers of the food that we consume regularly, and the harmful toxins present in our fruits, vegetables, and grains grown using powerful pesticides, chemicals, and other additives, it is often a huge challenge to be able to find honest, organic, and wholesome food for our kids,” she says.

Mother knows best

This gap made Priyanka decide to start up with Mimmo Organics in Bengaluru. With a dual master’s in biotechnology and business management from Macquarie University, Sydney, Priyanka already had extensive experience in the field of infant and pediatric product sector, in which she worked for nearly a decade before bootstrapping Mimmo Organics.

The startup aims to deliver quality organic food for babies and young children by abiding by the food SOPs in India. All the firm’s products are USDA, EU, organic, and FSSAI certified. Ingredients for the baby food products are procured from certified organic growers and manufacturers only. Priyanka believes that this is important for a child’s overall development.

“Putting your little ones on such a diet starts them on the road to eating right and staying healthy at the outset of their lives, and is the best gift you could give them as responsible parents,” she says.

Food for thought

While coming up with the products Priyanka consulted a number of nutritionists and pediatricians that she had worked with in the past. A beloved product from the startup is Mimmo Organics’ Tender Yums Teething Wafers, which are gluten and lactose free, five-allergen free, and can be consumed by a baby as young as nine months of age. She says that they are also easy on developing teeth and jaws, and convenient for a baby to hold.

“The wafers are the first teething wafers for toddlers to be introduced in India. They are made out of buckwheat and have been sourced from Italy,” Priyanka says.

Mimmo Organics foods are vacuum-packed to preserve freshness and are considered easily portable and appropriate for travel.The founder cannot stress enough on the importance of good food from an early age.

“If you start introducing foods with a lot of sugar and salt, then the baby gets used to this and prefers this sort of food. On speaking to reputed pediatricians I have come to discover that a lot of mothers tend to give their babies food that they eat, thinking that the taste will also appeal to them. However, this should not be the case as babies are not equipped to deal with the levels of spice, sugar, and salt that appeals to adult palates,” Priyanka says.

Teething challenges

Priyanka faced a number of challenges when she was just starting up. Her parents were supportive and knew that she was always driven and hardworking, and that she could achieve what she set her mind to do. Her husband, Anup Sridhar, who is an athlete and a professional Olympic badminton player, was equally encouraging, knowing the value of a balanced diet and how important it is to provide the right nutrients to a growing child.

However, a lot of friends and colleagues said, “Why would you do this now, especially since you have just had a child?” However, this did not deter Priyanka, who was determined to go forward with her idea by trusting her instincts.

“I used to have a very successful job, and I was heading the pediatric division at British Biologicals. I had a big team with around 120 individuals who were waiting for me to come back after my maternity leave. However, I just felt like it was the right time to start. I felt like an entrepreneur and wanted to do this, as I was a mother experiencing what was happening first hand,” she says.

Another big challenge Priyanka faced while starting Mimmo Organics was spreading awareness about organic food.

“The biggest challenge has been educating consumers about the difference between ‘natural’ and ‘certified organic’ in India. Many companies, hoping to cash in on organic success, may label their products 'organic' but these may not be genuinely certified organic. That's why it's important for consumers to look for certification logos on product labels to verify authenticity," Priyanka says.

It took around eight months for Priyanka to get all the clearances and certifications before she could launch the product. But as soon as she did and placed them in some premium organic stores, the products were sold out in record time. Her online sales too faced similar reception.

Plans for the future

The startup’s products are currently available at many leading retail outlets and organic stores in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad such as Nature’s Basket, The Organic World, Terra Organics, and Foodhall. Besides this, they are also available on online platforms such as Amazon, Firstcry, Qtrove, Babychakra, and BigBasket.

Priyanka has even teamed up with a number of hospitals such as Apollo Hospitals, Fortis Group, and Cloudnine, amongst others, where pediatricians have been extremely supportive and encouraging of her products. The Mimmo team is 12-member strong at present.

Mimmo Organics is all set to be launched in the UAE in the next couple of months. Priyanka also aims to start creating products for her upcoming wellness range, and hopes to create products for breastfeeding and lactating mothers as well. The startup had received initial seed funding and is looking to raise more to fuel its growth plans.

(Edited by Evelyn Ratnakumar)