Sisters Veda and Sai Sudha Gogineni are building a clean nutrition brand to take to the world

Health has always been a deeply personal subject for sisters Veda and Sai Sudha Gogineni. Growing up in a health-conscious family where yoga, mindful eating, and staying active were a way of life, they also faced health challenges up close. 

Their father lived with diabetes and its complications for decades, and he eventually underwent a kidney transplant recently.

As the sisters stepped into their thirties, a few years ago, they began to experience issues such as acidity, knee pain, and other concerns they had never experienced before. They realised that though they led healthy lives, what was missing was balanced nutrition. 

“With seven out of ten Indians suffering from some form of nutritional deficiency, and chronic issues appearing much earlier due to poor diets and sedentary lifestyles, we realised nutrition plays a big role in daily well-being, yet we are completely ignoring it,” says Sai Sudha.

They spent a year in research, creating an R&D team, establishing and understanding ingredient synergies and setting up a supply chain—before they launched the clean nutrition brand Earthful. 

How it all began

Two years apart in age, Sai Sudha and Veda completed their engineering degrees from IIT-Kharagpur. 

Veda, the younger of the two, pursued biotechnology and has a master's thesis in nutritional science focusing on gene editing. After graduation, she joined Deutsche Bank in Mumbai, where she worked with European stock markets. Later she took a career break to prepare for civil services examinations for around 3.5 years, although this pursuit was ultimately unsuccessful. She then transitioned into the startup ecosystem by joining ecommerce company Meesho during its growth phase.

After completing her civil engineering degree, Sai Sudha’s career began at ITC through the company’s prestigious AUT programme. This rigorous 10-month leadership training exposed her to factory operations, sales, and product development. She handled the Vivel skincare brand, managing both product development and factory operations in Haridwar. This stint gave her deep insights into FMCG manufacturing and R&D processes. She later moved to Urban Touch, owning the P&L for the beauty category and gaining mini-business owner experience before the company was acquired.

Following her startup experience, Sai Sudha pursued an MBA from the Indian School of Business and joined Uber India through campus placement, during the company’s early expansion phase in the country. 

Going back to roots

The sisters’ combined experiences and exposure to the startup ecosystem helped them take the plunge and launch Earthful in 2022.

“Our main positioning is that nutrients—vitamins and minerals—have always existed in nature, and we have consumed them from fruits, vegetables and plants. We wanted to go back to the roots and source these ingredients. We don’t add any colours, fillers, or excipients,” explains Veda. 

Vitamin C is obtained from amla (gooseberry), vitamin A from moringa, and calcium from marine algae that grows in seawater, rather than oyster shells or from synthetic lab production.

“We were conscious about having clean, plant-based products while marrying science to these ingredients to ensure they are efficacious,” she says.

In the first year itself, the sisters discovered a huge white space—there was hardly any focus on women in the perimenopause, menopause and post-menopause phases. Their first launch for women over 40+ was in 2022, and in two years, their SKUs for women have risen to 25. These include multi-vitamins for different age groups, plant-based proteins, and nutrition solutions for skin, hair, sleep, and PCOS.

Earthful works on a loan licensing model where R&D, quality control and supply chain management are operated in-house. It has tied up with a couple of manufacturers for job work. It works with expats in nutrition sciences, including food scientists and phytochemistry experts.

Earthful products are available on its website, a few marketplaces, and quick commerce channels.

“For natural ingredients, we have discovered a good supply chain within India and abroad,” says Sai Sudha.

Veda emphasises that clean nutrition is something many claim to offer, but few stick to it.

“It’s challenging to constantly find cleaner alternatives for every ingredient. For example, instead of refined sugar, we use monk fruit. We were among the first to use it three years ago. Instead of artificial flavours, we use actual fruit powders.”

The brand’s target audience is primarily women aged 35+, the primary decision-makers for their family’s nutrition.

“We are building products for her as our primary touchpoint and want to address all challenges she faces in her health journey, eventually expanding to what she wants for her family,” says Veda.

Challenges and vision

The founders admit that the initial challenge was sticking to their core values. 

“When we told vendors and manufacturers we didn’t want any excipients, colours, or fillers, it was an alien concept. Educating everyone and bringing them on board was challenging in the early years,” says Veda

After raising an angel round, the founders secured Rs 75 lakh from Ritesh Agarwal in the latest season of Shark Tank India. In February this year, Earthful raised Rs 5 crore in a funding round led by entrepreneur Srinivasan Namala. Ritesh Agarwal also participated in the round following his investment commitment on the show. This took Earthful’s total funding to over $1 million.

“We are profitable and growing 20-30% month-on-month. We are seeing strong growth because we’ve identified good white spaces. People are seeing benefits from our products, leading to good customer retention with existing customers purchasing monthly,” shares Sai Sudha.

The sisters’ vision for Earthful is ambitious and big.

“We come from a business family; my father is a first-time entrepreneur, so it’s in our genes. We want to make Earthful a ‘Made in India’ global nutrition brand. We want to take it to an IPO, and build clean, naturally-sourced nutrition for families,” signs off Sai Sudha.