Sustainability focused Slurrp Farm secures INR 50 crore in funding to expand millet-based offerings

New Delhi: Millet-based food start-up Wholsum Foods, which is the maker of children’s food brand Slurrp Farm has raised $7 million in a fresh round of fundraising led by Investment Corporation of Dubai, the sovereign wealth fund of the Government of Dubai, and existing investor Fireside Ventures, a multi-stage venture fund. The fundraise comes a year after Fireside Ventures’ initial investment of $2 million in the company. 

Ahead of the International Year of Millets in 2023, the fresh capital secured will help further Wholsum Foods’ core purpose of developing millet-based products with zero junk ingredients. The funds will be deployed towards product innovation, marketing as well as increasing global footprint. As millets, along with plant proteins such as lentils, legumes and chickpeas make up a large proportion of product R&D at Wholsum Foods, the new initiatives will help improve smallholder value chains and provide demand impetus for the grains.  

The fundraise comes at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the growth of Wholsum Foods, as consumers became more health-conscious, enabling the brand to register a 10x growth from June 2020 till December 2021. 

Speaking about the funding, Meghana Narayan and Shauravi Malik, co-founders and co-CEOs of Wholsum Foods Pvt Ltd said, “We have a deep-rooted conviction to bringing millets back to the meals we eat and making 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 INR 50 crore of revenue run rate, with an aim to reach INR 500 crore in revenue by 2025. The funds raised will enable us to build a global Indian FMCG brand.”

Kanwaljit Singh, Founder and Managing Partner, Fireside Ventures said, “We are absolutely delighted to participate in this round of funding for Wholsum Foods, a business which has purpose at its core as it brings back ancient grains which are good for both consumers and the planet. As a fund, we believe that building sustainable brands is the dual responsibility of investors and brands alike. In this context, as conscious consumption increases, Wholsum Food’s vision of bringing back supergrains like millets is perfectly in line with people and planet development goals. In that sense, our investment ethos and the core values which drive these two founders, are a good match.”

Nader Bekhouche, Principal – Investment (Growth Equity), ICD said, “We are pleased to partner with Wholsum Foods and to support the vision of its founders and the growth of the company. 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.”

2021 was an incredibly high growth year for Wholsum Foods as flagship brand Slurrp Farm achieved several milestones:

• 20 new SKUs were launched, including several in previously unexplored categories, such as the baked Little Millet Noodles and Foxtail Millet Noodles 
• The brand expanded to the UAE and is looking to grow its offline and online presence in the region by 40% in the next 12 months 
• Slurrp Farm also took its ‘zero junk promise’ to the United Kingdom and the United States of America as it began retailing in the two countries
• The brand won the Amazon Global Selling Propel Start-up Accelerator program, which enables Slurrp Farm to get access to customers across the world through Amazon’s e-commerce exports program and create a global brand
• Bolstered senior leadership through key hires across its finance, marketing and business development teams
• Wholsum Foods and the Akshaya Patra Foundation formed a ‘Food For All Children’ partnership program which enables children from all income backgrounds to benefit from nutrient-dense supergrains like millets and lentils.

In the past, Wholsum Foods has also raised $1 million from over 20 angel investors including well-known investors such as Rakesh Kapoor (former CEO of Reckitt Benckiser), Sanjeev Bikhchandani (Founder and Executive Vice Chairman, Info Edge), Ashish Dhawan (Founder & 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), amongst others.