Kids nutrition gets a boost with growing focus on health

Read full article By Meenakshi Verma Ambwani @The Hindu Business Line Photo Credit:/iStockphoto

Krishi Vigyan Kendras across Uttar Pradesh are helping reintroduce the nutritious bajra in rural diets, including anganwadis, to combat malnutrition and anaemia in women and children.

Start-ups Slurrp Farm, Adthera Consumer scaling up production and R&D investment to tap this segment

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& 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.”