Wholsum Foods, a Millet-based food startup announced on Wednesday said it bagged $7 million in a new funding round led by Investment Corporation of Dubai, the sovereign wealth fund of the Government of Dubai, and existing investor Fireside Ventures.
The newly raised capital will augment Wholsum Foods’ ambition of developing millet-based products with zero junk ingredients. The funds will also be invested towards product innovation, marketing, and increasing global footprint.
Meghana Narayan and Shauravi Malik, Co-founders and Co-CEOs, Wholsum Foods, said, “We have a deep-rooted conviction to bring millets back to the meals we eat and make them incredibly delicious. The UN-designated Year of Millets strengthens our commitment to lead the conversation on these supergrains. We are growing steadily and currently clocking in over Rs 50 crore of revenue run rate, with an aim to reach Rs 500 crore in revenue by 2025. The funds raised will enable us to build a global Indian FMCG brand.”
Founded by Meghana Narayan and Shauravi Malik, Slurrp Farm was born in October 2016 to provide healthy and natural food options for children.
Wholsum Foods records 10x Growth
Wholsum Foods, the parent firm food brand Slurrp Farm capitalized the need by consumers to consume health-conscious food, enabling the brand to register a 10X growth between June 2020 and December 2021. The fundraise comes a year after Fireside Ventures’ initial investment of $2 million in the company.
Earlier, Wholsum Foods has also raised $1 million from over 20 angel investors, including Rakesh Kapoor (former CEO of Reckitt Benckiser), Sanjeev Bikhchandani (Founder and Executive Vice Chairman, Info Edge), Ashish Dhawan (Founder and CEO, Central Square Foundation), Aditya Ghosh (board member of Akasa, Fab India, and OYO), Yasemin Lamy (Deputy CIO of impact investment group CDC), and Samrath Bedi (Executive Director, Forest Essentials), among others.
Nader Bekhouche, Principal – Investment (Growth Equity), ICD, said, “The Slurrp Farm brand is backed by the goodness of superfood ingredients like millets and has built enormous appeal for itself since inception. At ICD, we seek to partner with companies like Wholsum Foods that are building innovative digital-first brands that focus on good for consumers and good for the world while also enjoying a large shareholder value creation opportunity. We believe that Wholsum Foods fits this bill perfectly and is poised to achieve significant scale.”
