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It all began with Prathima Vishwanath’s attempts to prepare food that met the nutritional requirements of her tennis-playing daughter. Her experiments in the kitchen had an unintended but welcome result — a ₹4.2-crore business in ready-to-cook nutritious food.
After reaching 1,000 outlets across cities and towns in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, besides Bengaluru and Chennai, Vishwanath’s start-up, Ammamma’s (‘ammamma’ means maternal grandmother in several Indian languages), is now ready to set up a production facility in Bengaluru at a cost of ₹1.5 crore.
Vishwanath shot into the limelight in July when she appeared on Nenu Superwoman, a reality show featuring women entrepreneurs on the streaming platform aha. Angel investors Sudhakar Reddy and Deepa Dodla decided to invest ₹50 lakh for a 2 per cent stake in her venture after they were impressed by the story of her entrepreneurial journey and her business idea.
When daughter Maanya developed an interest in tennis at age eight, her parents decided to support her all the way. “You know it is quite challenging financially to support an international player. When our daughter started playing international circuits, I decided to accompany her,” Vishwanath recounts.
“Since we couldn’t afford to appoint a dedicated nutritionist and manager, I decided to double as a caretaker and nutritionist. Those competing in international games need to follow a strict food regimen — you cannot eat food that’s oily or from outside,” she says.
“While taking care of a young child’s craving for tasty food, I had to also factor in the nutritional requirements. I started researching and developed a menu — puris that don’t absorb much oil, moringa and methi chapati, and a host of other recipes.”
Birthing a business
When Maanya turned 16, however, she quit competitive sport and went to the US on a scholarship for higher studies.
“After she left, I faced a huge vacuum, not knowing what to do. An MBA from JNTU (Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad) myself, I thought I should convert my newly acquired skill of producing nutritious food into a business idea. I started Ammamma’s in 2019 with an investment of ₹10 lakh,” she reminisces.
She, however, hit a hurdle within a year, with the global outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Undeterred, she stepped up supplies as the pandemic receded, and this time her husband, who has over 25 years of experience in the FMCG industry, joined in to help build the business.
“We started off with 20-30 packets (of 10 chapatis each) a day. Today we deal with 5,000 packets a day,” she says. From two initially, the number of employees has grown to nearly 100 today.
The market for ready-to-cook products in Bengaluru is estimated to be three times bigger than that of Hyderabad.
“I had actually sought an investment of ₹3 crore for a 6 per cent stake during the reality show. But I got only ₹50 lakh. No matter, we will raise funds to support my expansion plans,” she says, brimming with confidence.
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