These women-led startups are ensuring healthy snacks never go out of style

A penny for every time one even thinks about adopting a healthier diet and cutting down on snacking will likely make most of us a lot richer. But, wishful thinking aside, a host of new brands are making their presence felt to help make healthier choices without giving up on your cravings. That’s right - have your cake, and eat it too, if you will. 

As India’s food market grows at a steady pace, the focus on health is catching up fast and how! It is expected to become a $30 billion market for health food by 2026, according to Avendus. 

In this regard, HerStory has curated a list of women-owned brands that are offering healthy alternatives at an affordable rate. The entrepreneurs behind these brands have done their research, understood the mindsets and strived hard to bring the spotlight back on healthy foods, and are all geared up for a healthy growth curve. Let’s find out who they are.

Foodio.fit 

School friends-turned co-founders Apoorva Gururaj and Suresh Reddy D are on a mission to let people snack guilt-free. Founded in 2020, their Bengaluru-based startup Foodio fit offers a range of Indian snacks, chocolates, beverages, speciality flours, and vegetable chips with low carb, high protein, multigrain, and keto options. 

In less than a year of operation, the startup has shipped more than one lakh orders to over 5,000 customers with a 30 percent repeat rate.

Present in countries in India, the US, Australia, and the United Kingdom via more than 50 distributors, the startup claims to have a 25 percent month-on-month growth and aims to expand further to countries like Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, and Dubai.

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[Startup Bharat] How Jaipur-based Gladful aims to provide tasty protein snacks for children

Gladful

After learning that her 10-year-old son was protein deficient, Parul Sharma quit the corporate grind after 15 years and wound up in entrepreneurship when she couldn’t find food brands that her son liked. Along with her sibling Manu Sharma, she founded a protein-rich and healthy snacks brand Gladful in 2021. 

With a focus on children, their Jaipur-based startup uses wholewheat, and unrefined cane sugar, and avoids ammonia in its products, packing seven to eight grams of protein per serving.

With a gross margin of over 60 percent, Gladful’s products are available on Amazon, Cred, Flipkart, and smaller marketplaces like OneGreen and LBB.

Started with an initial investment of Rs 25 lakh, the direct-to-consumer (D2C) brand raised an undisclosed amount of seed round in December last year. Led by Antler India, the round’s participating investors include Huddle Accelerator, and Shiprocket via their programme RocketfuelXHuddle, among others.

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[Startup Bharat] This Kolkata-based platform is bringing Bengal's indigenous snacks to your home

India Cuisine

India’s diversity also shows in its food. Kolkata-based husband-wife duo Umashankar Mishra and Shruti Mishra are leveraging technology to make Bengali delicacies and cuisine available across India and outside. 

Founded by the duo in January 2021, India Cuisine is a foodtech startup that sells West Bengal’s regional cuisine and food such as Bengali sweets, authentic Bengali groceries, desi ghee, dry fruits, sweets, snacks, drinks, and beverages, fryums, instant mix, and others within the price range of Rs 38 to Rs 1,220.

Starting with just 51 products and five categories during the lockdown, it now offers more than 400 items across 10 categories and India Cuisine went on to be recognised by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).

Bootstrapped with an initial investment of just Rs 21,000 and a total investment of Rs 10 Lakh, it has served over 2,000 customers so far.

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These sibling-entrepreneurs want to help every parent's problem — healthy snacking for children

Timios

When siblings Aswani Chaitanya and Hima Bindu set on an entrepreneurial journey with children’s healthy snacking brand Timios, the duo knew that the health quotient alone was not enough to penetrate the children’s market. Being parents themselves, they focused equally on taste so that children would enjoy it without parents’ nudging. 

Now the duo’s Bengaluru-based brand Timios offers a wide range of options including mini oaty bites, teething sticks, nutty bars, berry bars and other healthy snacks for lactating and pregnant mothers. 

Priced between Rs 20 and Rs 320, they are available on its website and across ecommerce marketplaces, including Bigbasket, Blinkit, Amazon, and Flipkart. 

Fulfilling an average of 4000 orders per month, it has a retail presence in over 500 stores across India and ships to the US, the UK, Singapore, Taiwan, and China as well.