WIMWI Foods will use the funds to grow its range of healthy granola bars (called ASAP Bars), strengthen its retail distribution network as well as onboard senior hires across key functions in the company. Your browser does not support the audio element. Bengaluru-based FMCG startup, WIMWI Foods raised an undisclosed amount in its Series A funding round from Parle Biscuits. According to the startup, it will use the capital to grow its range of healthy granola bars (called ASAP Bars), strengthen the distribution network of its products as well as onboard senior hires across key functions in the company. Founded in March 2014, by IIM-Ahmedabad alumni Shristi Shaw and Kanupradeep Subramanian, FMCG startup WIMWI Foods aims to introduce healthier food choices from across the world into Indian kitchens and homes. Kanu and Shristi, founders at WIMWI Foods Pvt. Ltd. Speaking on the fund raise, the founders of WIMWI Foods said,
“The investment from Parle biscuits is validation of the team's vision of ASAP bars as a brand and product. As strategic investors with immense repute, Parle brings formidable experience to the table, which will go a long way in building ASAP Bars going ahead.”
At present, the startup is focussed on building its sales in both the conventional mass-market (mom and pop stores) as well as modern trade channels (ecommerce). This is a growth from 2017 when the startup was focussing more on niche retail channels like airlines (including Air Asia, Air Vistara, and major domestic airports). Mayank Shah, Senior Category Head, Parle Products, commented,
"ASAP bars offers a strong value proposition for the young urban segment. By using premium quality ingredients and a focussed channel strategy, ASAP Bars has differentiated itself from similar offerings in the market. The team at ASAP bars is doing a wonderful job in building up the brand, and we would like to help them take the brand to the next level with our expertise." When asked about, future plans, the founders said,  “We have a wonderful product in ASAP bars. We hope to grow our brand value further and establish as the go-to snack bar for busy urban consumers.” 
The brand plans to reach 50,000 retail points, selling its products by the end of this year. (Edited by Saheli Sen Gupta)

[Funding alert] Parle Biscuits invests in Series A round of FMCG startup WIMWI Foods

13 June 2017
shares
The paths of two engineers from the southern and easternmost hubs of the country crossed at IIM Ahmedabad. Over restaurant crawls and long conversations about food, Shristi Shaw and Kanupradeep Subramanian conjured up a dream of building FMCG food brands based on the ideas that food need not be complicated to be healthy, and healthy food need not taste bland. Kanu and Shristi, founders at WIMWI Foods. Some tasty opportunism
“Most of the urban workforce has a sedentary lifestyle, and yet, eats food designed for a labour -intensive day. Countries like the UK and Brazil had managed to engineer their food habits to better adapt to this indoor lifestyle, but the Indian diet still had large repositories of starch and carbs. We wanted to bridge this gap,” says Shristi. Interestingly, WIMWI Foods is a tribute to IIMA, as it is actually an acronym for “Well-Known Institute of Management in Western India—something students and alumni often refer to the institution as. Inspired to build an enterprise providing Indians with healthy food products, the gourmands decided to curate products from across the globe to make this process even more scintillating on the palate. WIMWI Foods  was thus set up in March 2014, and shiitake mushrooms were their first product under the brand name Le Gourmetz, meaning ‘the foodies’. Shiitake mushrooms, the jewel of oriental cuisine, are the second-most-consumed mushrooms globally and are rich in protein, B-complex vitamins, and dietary fibre, and when consumed regularly, reduce cholesterol, protect against multiple diseases, including cancer, through an active compound called lentinan. Came, saw, conquered
As a team with a combined experience of zero years in the food industry , they foresaw two major challenges to building a self-sustainable business. The first was on the manufacturing side of things like capacity planning, capex management, batch planning, shelf-life management, and the most critical risk—the danger of underutilising capacity. The second hurdle they anticipated was in distribution—channel costs, working capital management, credit management, inventory management, pricing, and trade margins. But the duo outsmarted the system with their first product and bought some time in understanding the supply chain. Dried shiitake mushrooms helped them test the waters and navigate the distribution challenges while almost entirely avoiding manufacturing obstacles. This was because they needed no processing except quality control and grading, hence reducing fixed assets; no for temperature control, thus streamlining storage and transportation which led to further reduction of fixed assets; they weren’t liquid, so no containers or tanks needed; and lastly, their long natural shelf life helped avoid processing steps like advanced packaging technology. The first six months of their journey were spent in getting familiarised with the international supply chain and developing the marketing strategy for the product. “We worked with a number of chefs and visited a lot of hotels to design the right recipe book to suit the Indian palate,” says Shrishti. FMCG crawl
They launched the mushrooms via the Hypercity chain mid-November 2014 in Mumbai , Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad , and in various stores across the country by early 2015. As word got around, they started seeing a steady growth in sales throughout 2015. Today, they sell through more than 200 stores in India. The shiitake mushrooms project, as they had hoped, gave them major learnings. Besides market data the duo, by spending weekends inside stores with a brand kiosk to sample some cooked products made with the mushrooms, also struck up conversations with customers about their pain points when it came to healthy eating. “We were able to understand very clearly that snacking was a major generator of guilt when it came to eating. Most of the guilt was due to anecdotal inputs people receive (maida is bad) and over-indulgent flavours (death by chocolate). Further, snacks had very impulse-driven consumption where convenience was as critical as health and taste. This was perhaps the richest learning we took from the project,” explains Kanu. Armed with their experience while retailing shiitake mushrooms—which was already one success story in the bag—they now decided to venture into manufacturing and setting up a brand in the snacking and quick-eating category, something they had come to feel strongly about. To start this new chapter, they raised seed funding from CIIE and a couple of Ahmedabad-based investors. “In our minds, the mandate was clear—develop a snacking brand that offers a convenient eating experience without the guilt of snacking on unhealthy food,” he explains. With the funds raised, they moved operations to Bengaluru, set up a team, and got cracking on product development. Round two
They zeroed in on granola bars as a powerful format for two reasons—they can fit anywhere and have simple ingredients that people can see, recognise, and understand. They wanted just one look to be enough for customers to understand the ingredients. However, maintaining a shelf life of six months in transparent packaging without adding any preservatives or colours formed their next great challenge. “We invested in developing special packaging for our product and the results have been spectacular,” Kanu says. They wished to coin a catchy name with a high level of recall, and ‘ASAP’—As Simple As Possible—ticked all boxes. They launched ASAP bars through Amazon.in in July 2016 and have grown month on month at an average rate of 34 percent in sales. “ASAP Bars are a godsend because I tend to skip meals very often. It’s quick and healthy snack with simple ingredients, so, I don’t have to bother with packaged food,” says Radhika, a media professional who regularly consumes these bars. With business growing fast, the need for working capital got direr. Last year was a difficult one for fundraising, as investment sentiment in startups was deeply pessimistic, according to Kanu. “A lot of food-tech startups and hyperlocal delivery shut shop at the end of 2015 and 2016. In this time, our strong business fundamentals—lean operations, in-house production, and a strong demand from consumers—helped us sail through,” he says. Funding, ASAP
ASAP Bars’ success helped them close their pre-Series A round with two Chennai-based investors— Bhoovarahan Thirumalai and Gowri Subramanian —in November 2016. “Their innovative product line with a rare combination of talent, enthusiasm, and grounded nature in the management team is what attracted us to the company. And building a consumer product is such an exhilarating journey,” says Bhoovarahan. They also gave an exit to all the seed round investors in this round. Starting with just two people, their team is now 20-strong, and their product development still happens in-house. They have now cracked the in-flight catering menus of Air Asia, Air Vistara, and major domestic airports, and are among the bestsellers in the granola bars category on Amazon.in. The duo tells us that the Indian health food market stood at Rs 10,000 crore in 2016, and currently contributes to 10 percent of the overall Indian market compared to the global average of 25 percent. “As far as eating habits go, it is debatable if one should work towards having a better infrastructure to support locally grown food, or procure the ‘best’ from outside but going purely by numbers, there is a market,” says Kanu. Calling all Bengaluru startups! If you're a startup founder, Head of Finance or a CFO at a startup or a small/medium-sized business, sign up for the Taxmantra GST Workshop conducted by Alok Patnia, Founder, Taxmantra on Saturday, 17 June. Get your tickets now! Limited seats available! Responses

2 foodies, 2 delicious products, 2 funding rounds: How WIMWI wants to rule your taste buds

Ahmedabad-based WIMWI Foods , a startup that brings healthy food ingredients & snacks to Indian kitchens and offices, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from IIM Ahmedabad’s technology business incubator, Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE). This round also saw investment from Ahmedabad-based angel investors Siddharth Jain and Dinesh Bindal. Founded in March, 2014, by Kanupradeep Subramanian and Srishti Shaw, WIMWI Foods, looks to bring a change to the Indian food stage with products which offer better eating options and healthier ingredients. Also Read:  ShopKirana Aims To Devour The Kirana Store Woes Like A Piranha
The company introduced healthy Shiitake mushrooms under its own brand ‘Le Gourmetz – the foodies’, these mushrooms are popular across the globe for their ‘earthy umami flavour’ and exquisite taste. Currently, the company is selling about over 200 retail stores across Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Delhi, Gurgaon and Ahmedabad. Also Read:  IBM Global Entrepreneurship Program Announces SirionLabs As Winner Of SmartCamp 2015 Challenge
Reportedly , the company plans to utilise the funds to develop a portfolio of healthy snacks and strengthen its distribution across the country. Welcome to Flash Feed , your essential source for breaking news and innovation from around the web – bite-sized and updated all day. Advertisement


CIIE Invests In WIMWI Foods, A Startup That Offers Healthy Food Options

Company Name : WIMWI
Investor(s) CIIE Siddharth Jain. Dinesh Bindal. Funding Round : Not Disclosed
IIM Ahmedabad’s technology business incubator, Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) has invested an undisclosed amount in WIMWI Foods. Ahmedabad based angel investors Siddharth Jain and Dinesh Bindal also participated in the funding round. WIMWI Foods was founded by alumni of IIM Ahmedabad — Kanupradeep Subramanian and Srishti Shaw. Srishti Shaw, Co-founder, WIMWI Foods said, “Healthy eating is what everyone wants, but most of us end up eating junk and feel guilty about it. We Indians love our munchies. The primary reason is the lack of options and solutions which can bring about a lifestyle change rather than bursts of dieting. Moreover, the urban Indian lifestyle is becoming more and more sedentary with lesser disposable time. We see a huge opportunity to create disruptive solutions here. We want to introduce healthy and interesting snacking solutions that will offer the benefit of convenience without feeling guilty.”
The company is currently selling at more than 200 retail stores across Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Delhi, Gurgaon and Ahmedabad. Related


Ahmedabad Based WIMWI Foods Raises Funding From CIIE And Others

IIM-Ahmedabad incubated WIMWI Foods launches branded Shii’take mushrooms
Jubin Mehta |  January 08, 2015 at 4:24 pm
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Shii’take Mushrooms? Well, I hadn’t heard about them before these young entrepreneurs from IIM-Ahmedabad told me over mail. As it turns out, Shii’take mushrooms are a jewel of the oriental cuisine and are the second most consumed mushrooms globally. These flavorful Japanese wood mushrooms have high protein content and are rich in B complex Vitamins and dietary fiber. When consumed regularly, they reduce cholesterol and develops protection against multiple diseases. It contains an active compound lentinan, which helps protect against cancer and is an official adjuvant for stomach cancer in Japan. And they’re now available in India, thanks to Srishti Shaw and Kanupradeep Subramanian. Shrishti completed her Electronics & Tele-communication Engineering from Jadavpur University while Kanupradeep (or as people call him – Kanu) completed his Electrical Engineering from IIT-Madras. They both joined IIM-A right after graduation and this is where their paths crossed. “During the restaurant hops with our friends, we discovered a common passion for food and a deep ambition to start our own venture after graduating,” says Shrishti. Both of them had previously gained international exposure in UK, Brazil and various South East Asian countries through their internships and personal travels. As they recollected their experiences with food in these places, they came to a realization- ‘These countries had managed to engineer their food habits to better adapt to the indoor lifestyle, which comes with corporatization of workplaces. Comparatively, Indian diet still focuses on large intakes of starch and carbs that are suited for outdoor and physical labor.’
The duo felt that this is an important market gap and thus decided to set out to try and impact the way an Indian household thinks about food. “This acted as our motivation to build an enterprise that can provide healthy food products from across the globe to Indian kitchens,” says Kanu. They have set up WIMWI Foods Private Limited to improve the awareness and access to healthy eating options in India. The first step- Shii’take Mushrooms under the brand name Le Gourmetz – the Foodies. The company was formally incorporated on 31st March 2014. Most of the last 6 months were spent in setting up the international supply chain and developing the marketing strategy for the product. “We worked with a number of chefs and visited a lot of hotels to design the right recipe book that will suite the Indian palette,” says Shrishti. They launched the mushrooms via Hypercity Chain in mid-November in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Ahmedabad. Recently, they have also started retailing through Ahmedabad based Fresh and Frozen food chain, Magson. Being students of IIM, market research is in the DNA. The duo tells us that the Indian health food market stood at Rs 9,000 crore in 2010, and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 20 per cent to Rs 22,500 crore by 2015. Currently it contributes to 10% of the overall Indian market compared to global average of 25%. The mushroom market itself in India is approximately 1000 crore and faces huge demand supply gap. The Indian per capita consumption stands at 40 gms compared to 11.6 kg in Netherlands and 1.62 kg in USA. As far as eating habits go, it is debatable if one should work towards having a better infrastructure to support locally grown food or procure the ‘best’ from outside but going purely by numbers, there is market. WIMWI Foods is currently part of IIMAvericks Programme, a Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) and IIM-Ahmedabad Alumni initiative, which supports graduating students of IIM-Ahmedabad with a monthly stipend and active mentoring. They have also received a scholarship through the GC Mital Entrepreneurship Aid, supported by IIM-Ahmedabad alumni and disbursed through the Institute. The duo have started strong and want to be an integrated health foods company that brings healthier food choices and practices from across the globe into Indian kitchen.


IIM-Ahmedabad incubated WIMWI Foods launches branded Shii’take mushrooms

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WIMWI Foods is a provider of healthy food products. The company has introduced a range of healthy granola bars under brand ASAP Bars.

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