Food Safety Conversation: Building a Startup Ecosystem for Food
Startups have been the talk of the town for a while but a lot of new you get to hear is on the logistics solution around the food rather than the food itself. There have been a few success stories like Paperboat, ID and RAW but the market still remains undeserved.
Food startups have tremendous potential to change the consumption landscape, drive up income levels and generate employment at the grass roots. Also food being a nascent industry with a fair amount of localization of taste, there is a huge playing field for SMEs to operate and grow. The government is also providing a lot of focus to the sector with new schemes like the PM-FME which provides grants and credit link subsidies to small entrepreneurs. So there is no better time for your startups in food and yet the journey is anything but easy.
Talking about the topic, we have a very knowledgeable panel which consists of entrepreneurs, mentors and investors. Each one of them is an integral part of the ecosystem and essential to help you navigate through the system. Here is a brief profile of the panelists.
Nilesh Lele is a first generation social entrepreneur, the Founder and Managing Director of Exelon Foodbio Advisors Pvt. Ltd.; a company that provides Technical and Management Consultancy to Startups and Small & Medium Enterprises in Food Industry. He is a Director of Sawarde Valley Food Foundation, an NGO working closely with farmers and entrepreneurs across Maharashtra. Recently they launched direct Farm to Society selling of fresh produce aimed at Doubling Farmer Income by 2022. He is also the Proprietor of Exelon Basket, which is into manufacturing of carbonated and non-carbonated beverages (such as Jeera Masala, Orange, Lemon, Blue Curacao, Ginger, Mango, Kokam and Solkadhi). He is also the Proprietor of Frutine Beverages, which is into manufacturing of Exotic Fruit Wines, such as Mango & Jamun Wines. In January 2018 Mr. Nilesh Lele won the Best Innovation Award at Global Kokan Conclave for these “Exotic Fruit Wines“ at the hands of Shri Suresh Prabhu, Hon. Minister of Commerce & Industries and Shri. Uddhavji Thackrey
Namit Chugh is an Investment Associate at Lok Capital, a VC fund with a focus on investing in financial inclusion, healthcare, agriculture and livelihoods. He is an alumni of Indian School of Business with a strategic and operational finance professional with 9 years of consulting, transaction advisory and investing experience across industries. He also has experience of strategic portfolio management and transaction execution including due diligence, financial assessment and modelling, valuation, commercial negotiations, preparing term sheets and investment memoranda. on Behalf of Lok Capital, he has closed investment deals worth $ 20 Mn with Veritas Finance (SME lending), Renewbuy (insure-tech platform) and Monsoon Harvest (Consumer products)
Aswani Chaitanya is the CEO and Co-founder of Timios, a startup that offers a range of age appropriate food products for Children. After spending about 15 years in top tier investment banks, Aswani decided to start his own company when he found a gap in the healthy snacks market in India. Prior to Timios, Aswani has worked as a Sr Vice President at Goldman Sachs from 2013-2015. Before that he worked at Deutsche Bank for more than 6 years as Head of European Securities Lending & Funding IT, Finance Resource Management (FRM) IT – Global Development Manager and Securities Lending IT – London Development Manager. Aswani has also worked at UBS investment bank and Wipro technologies. The idea for Timios came about when Aswani moved to India from the UK in 2014. Once he returned, he was in search of healthy age appropriate snacks for his two boys. Unlike in the developed markets, there were no options for healthy yet tasty snacks designed for children. He realized the gap in the market and teamed up with his sister Hima Bindu to start Timios.
The panel will be moderated by Ramesh Agarwal, COO, Food Safety Works. So, mark your calendar and join us for an interesting session. Click here to add it to your calendar. For an opportunity to be able to join the panel to ask a question live, please register here. This will also be a YouTube Live session
If you missed our last month’s Food Safety Conversation, you can watch it now.
