Meet the sisters building The Sweet Change, a natural sweetener brand

Growing up, Manvi Agnihotri noticed that in many Indian families, including her own, ageing seemed to come with an accepted checklist of ailments: high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, or heart disease.

“Everybody has it, and everybody is okay about it. They don’t take care of their eating habits or the preventive measures they should be taking,” she says.

At a time when nutrition was rarely taught in schools, Agnihotri chose a different path. She went on to earn a master's degree in food and nutrition from Lady Irwin College, graduating with a silver medal. She also completed her thesis at FSSAI, where she studied food safety.

She stayed on that path, which eventually led her to entrepreneurship. Along with her sister, Sheen Hitaishi, she co-founded The Sweet Change, a clean, natural sweetener brand.

Manvi began her career at Healthify as a product nutritionist working on protein products and Vitamin D supplements. It was later, while heading a programme for a Type 2 diabetes reversal platform, that the idea of The Sweet Change was born.

“India is the diabetes capital of the world—almost every family has someone who is pre-diabetic or diabetic. The people I was consulting had accepted that they'd be on medication for life. They'd start on metformin and end up on insulin. They hated the daily injections and felt that there was no way out,” she explains.

Manvi says diabetes reversal or remission is possible by following the right diet and fitness protocols. “The first step is to always cut out sugar in every form because even a teaspoon can spike blood sugar,” she adds.

However, patients who consulted with her wanted to eat well and not give up on “sweetness”. Many turned to “natural” options like honey or jaggery, but the body reads all these as glucose.

“Their glycemic index is the same as sugar, sometimes even higher. So people would come back to me saying, 'I stopped eating sugar, but my blood sugar is still spiking from honey, jaggery, coconut sugar,'” she says.

The solution was a zero-glycemic-index natural replacement. The only option in the market at the time was stevia, but it had a strong bitter aftertaste, especially in tea or coffee, so adoption was low.

A few clients who travelled to the US, Canada, or Australia would bring back monk fruit sweeteners, but it was expensive and imported, with a single bottle costing Rs 2,000–3,000. 

“Diabetes wasn’t just a rich person’s problem. I was also seeing women with PCOS and insulin resistance, which, if untreated, progresses to pre-diabetes and then diabetes. These women needed to manage sugar too,” she notes.

Clean and gut-friendly monk sweetener

Manvi took on the challenge and spent a year cracking it. The result: The Sweet Change, a natural monk fruit sweetener in powder and drop variants. She explains that monk fruit differs from regular sweeteners because it is naturally sweet, derived from mogrosides rather than sugar. So it gives sweetness without sugar, calories, or a glucose spike.

Stevia can often leave a bitter or herbal aftertaste for many people.

Most monk fruit sweeteners on the market, even bestsellers on Amazon, she points out, are actually about 99% erythritol and only 1% monk fruit. The Sweet Change’s powder has no erythritol and the highest monk fruit concentration in the category—30%—with the rest being guar fibre and allulose. It claims to be India’s first gut-friendly sweetener.

Erythritol is a zero-calorie sweetener popular among diabetics and those watching their weight. However, recent studies have raised concerns about a possible link between erythritol and an increased risk of cardiovascular events, such as heart attacks and strokes.

The Sweet Change drops contain only monk fruit, water, and vitamin C and are a clean sugar replacement.

The company works with contract manufacturers in Hyderabad and Manesar to produce the drops and powder.

“I wanted to build something specifically for people dealing with metabolic issues like PCOS and diabetes, even cancer patients, who also need to avoid sugar but still want something sweet. We've partnered with Cancer Mitra, which recommends our products to its patients,” Manvi elaborates.

While Manvi leads product development and nutrition, her sister, Sheen, is the face of The Sweet Change. Active across Instagram, Facebook, and other social platforms, she has helped build a loyal community around the brand, driving engagement and customer retention.

“Wellness matters a lot to our generation. We've watched our parents and grandparents fall into this trap because they didn't have the awareness we have with social media and access to information. For me personally, it felt important to address problems early rather than wait,” says Manvi.

Sheen believes younger consumers are changing the way families think about food.

“Our generation actually flips the pack and reads the ingredients—and we are making our parents more aware too. I think we carry a real responsibility, not just for ourselves but for the next generation, and especially for people who are already suffering,” she says.

Challenges and way forward

Launched in March 2025, The Sweet Change has clocked Rs 2.6 crore in sales, with nearly 70% of its revenue coming through its own website. The brand expanded to Amazon earlier this year and, within just three months, broke into the platform's top 10 sweetener brands.

Was it difficult to get the message across, given that India is usually slow to adopt this kind of product?

“In a decade of being a clinical nutritionist, this was a problem that no one had solved. A dietician can suggest a swap, but for sugar, there wasn’t a good one until now. We knew from day one who we were building for; this was never a niche want; it’s a mass need for diabetics, pre-diabetics, people trying to lose weight, the label-conscious, the calorie-conscious, all looking for a sugar replacement,” Manvi says.

Together, these segments represented a huge market.

But the brand's early traction revealed an unexpected audience.

"We saw Sheen's own age group, 18 to 30, responding very strongly, even without any metabolic issue. They're consciously trying to take preventive measures, doing 'no sugar' challenges and making healthier choices,” says Manvi.

Last year, the brand’s challenge was to educate people about what monk fruit is, where it comes from, its antioxidant value, and why it tastes so much better. 

This year, they are educating people on formulation and on the actual percentage of monk fruit in the product. 

The products are priced between Rs 450 and Rs 550.

Following a recent Rs 1.7 crore funding round backed by India Angel Network and Rebalance, The Sweet Change is focusing on expanding its distribution. After its launch on Amazon and Blinkit in Pune, the startup now plans to scale its quick-commerce presence. Manvi credits Rebalance's accelerator programme with helping the founders refine their strategy through mentorship, investor access, and a network of fellow D2C entrepreneurs.

"The Sweet Change is not simply selling a sweetener. It is helping consumers make one of the most important dietary shifts of their lives without asking them to sacrifice the experience. What impressed us most about The Sweet Change was the combination of deep founder insight, product quality and strong consumer adoption," says Aishwarya Malhi, Co-founder of Rebalance.

The company is working on new formats, including syrups.

"We are not committed to one ingredient forever. The science keeps evolving, and we'll continue bringing the best, evidence-backed sweetening solutions to Indian consumers,” says Manvi.