Packaged foods startup Forbidden Foods has raised seed funding of one million dollars from marquee angel investors and rolled out its first product line to compete directly with PepsiCo, Parle, ITC in the organised snacks space.
The seed funding round was led by curated crowd-funding platform and early stage venture fund Globevestor, and Secocha Ventures, a statement by Forbidden Foods said. Other investors in the round include First Cheque VC, HyperTrack founder and chief executive Kashyap Deorah, and Quess Corp chief executive Vijay Sivaram, among others.
Co-founder and chief executive Anuj Krishan, previously part of the founding team of home-grown craft beer BIRA 91, said: “We have assembled a cross-functional team to disrupt the packaged snacks business; we are pushing the envelope on innovation.”
The company said its first product line, BRB Popped Chips, is “smartphone-friendly”, low fat and gluten-free range, and has been launched in retail stores and e-commerce and grocery delivery platforms.
This is Krishnan’s second entrepreneurial venture. The other co-founders are Abhishek Agarwal previously with Schlumberger, Apurva Anand formerly with Coca-Cola and Hector Beverages (Paper Boat) and Tanmoy Mukherjee, also part of the founding team of BIRA 91 and previously with Lavazza and Reliance Retail.
According to a report by Mondelez International and The Harris Poll released late last year, over 75% of Indians said snacking is the future of food, against 53% globally. Indians are habitual snackers, with 77% snacking around the same time each day – starting right before breakfast and peaking at mid-day, the report said.
The coronavirus pandemic and the nationwide lockdown starting March 25 led to packaged foods companies including Nestle, Britannia, Amul and Parle reporting healthy volumes, as Indians stockpiled on foods as they stayed indoors.
Source: ETRetail
