The round also saw participation from Shiprocket Ventures, CapierCapital and Plan B Capital. Entrepreneurs including Harpreet Grover, Arjun Vaidya, Bhavik Vasa, Radhika Ghai, Vishesh Khurana, Bimal Kartheek Rebba , Ishank Joshi, Venus Dhuria, and Divij Bajaj among others also participated in the round.
The direct to consumer brand, which makes healthy organic snacks, plans to use the funds to ramp up its production capacity, launch new products, and augment its marketing and distribution channels. The brand primarily sells on its own website as well as marketplaces such as Amazon.
“Most packaged foods available are full of chemicals, artificial flavours and preservatives. Eat Better aims to change this narrative. We are excited to welcome an amazing group of investors who have backed and scaled large businesses. Our aim is to build a large and enduring food and beverage brand that offers customers delicious and healthy foods at the click of a button,” said Shaurya Kanoria, co-founder of Eat Better.
In India, snacking is one of the biggest categories within packaged food with annual sales of Rs40000 crore. Nearly 1500 companies have entered the food and beverages (F&B) segment, raising $1.6 billion over the past five years, according to Tracxn, a market intelligence provider for private company data. However, the market of healthy products is still small and niche even after the entry of mainstream companies such as Marico and Hindustan Unilever in the segment.
Founded in August 2020 during peak pandemic, by mother son duo —Mridula Kanoria and Shaurya Kanoria, Eat Better is a Jaipur based brand that makes snacks that are 100% natural and without chemicals, artificial flavours and colours. Over the past 18 months, the brand has expanded revenues by ten times.
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“Healthy and snacking need not be at odds with each other. Eat Better is building on India’s rich traditions of healthy snacks to bring time tested nibbles with a twist to suit the modern Indian palettes,” Karteek Pulapaka, Partner Java Capital said.
A recent study by EY said most large food players have adopted functionalization in their product portfolio to differentiate and drive value for consumers and 40% of Indian respondents are willing to pay a premium for products promoting health and wellness, which is higher than their global counterparts at 29%.
“While some see this as a short-term phenomenon, we expect this phase to catalyze a larger acceleration in the propensity towards personal health, hygiene, fitness and holistic nutrition. European and Asian nations have adopted functional foods and supplements, the Indian consumer is still predominantly showing a preference for “better for you” foods and home remedies. Ayurveda and herbal are increasingly becoming “back to roots” answers to modern problems,” said Angshuman Bhattacharya, National Leader – Consumer Product & Retail Sector, EY India.
