Start-ups focussing on nutritious offerings in the kids space are witnessing rapid growth in pandemic times with Indian consumers’ heightened focus on health and immunity-boosting offerings.

Players such as Slurrp Farm and Adthera Consumer Brands have also raised funds in the past few months to increase investment in R&D and scale up their distribution as well as production capacities to tap into this fast-growing segment. Bigger packaged food firms are also eyeing a share of this fast-growing segment.

Take for instance: Adthera Consumer Brands, which has raised ₹3 crore from Anicut Angel Fund. The start-up is known for its direct-to-consumer brand Zingavita, which are gummy bears enriched with vitamins and minerals.

Rohit Anand, Co-founder Adthera Consumer Brands, said, “We will be investing this fund to raise awareness around the need for building and meeting the nutritional gaps in children, who are typically classified as fussy and picky eaters. As a D2C brand, Zingavita will be investing in a lot of engagement with parents, doctors and nutritionists through targeted new-age digital platforms.”

Investment in R&D

Anand said the funds will also be invested on R&D for new product development in the kids nutrition space. “We plan to launch products both towards the centre of the plate in the form of healthy breakfast options and side of the plate in the form of health supplements in innovative kids-friendly formats using highest quality ingredients,” he added.

Slurrp Farm, which sells products such as millet-based dosas, cookies and pancakes, witnessed a nearly 300 per cent increase in its annual recurring revenues in the past few months.

Meghana Narayan, Co-Founders, Slurrp Farm, said, “In the past few months, we have seen a massive growth in demand for our products with the growing focus on nutrition, health and immunity-boosting products due to the pandemic outbreak. In addition, we are benefiting from the acceleration in adoption of digital platforms for purchases. We also saw that parents were not only seeking more nutritious options for their kids but also for themselves. This also led us to launch our range of multigrain cake mixes with no maida.”

Fund raising

In December, Slurrp Farm raised $2 million from multi-stage venture fund Fireside Ventures in its Series A funding round. The company plans to deploy the funds raised for product innovation, marketing, and increasing inventory to cater to the increasing demand. The brand is also looking to strengthen its team and fortify its D2C channel.

“We are also looking to strengthen our brand’s international presence in Singapore, UAE and the UK,” added Narayan. Earlier this month, Tata Consumer Products announced that it is set to acquire Kottaram Agro Foods, which is known for its millet-based products sold under the brand Soulfull and targeted at both kids and adults.

Packaged snacks brand Haldiram’s is also bringing in South African brand Futurelife in a distribution tie up to bring a range of nutritional foods to India. Under this distribution tie-up, Haldiram’s will retail Futurelife’ Smart Foods range of products that include steel cut oats, granola and high protein offerings which are meant for the entire family.

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