The article is contributed By Pranay Jain, Founder & CEO, BodyFirst
Food and nutrition were formerly exclusively of interest to fitness and health-conscious individuals. For many years, the idea of fitness was limited to enhancing one’s appearance through gym memberships. In the last two years, the Covid-19 pandemic has gradually redefined the concept of healthy living and emphasized the need for immunity boosters and supplements. What, when and how individuals eat are becoming the main themes of discourse in contemporary culture. The post-pandemic period is now experiencing an increase in the number of persons benefiting from different health and nutrition products, which corresponds with the increase in the adoption of a healthy lifestyle.
The numbers from before the pandemic illustrate this pattern. The Indian gyms, health and fitness industry expanded by 11% between 2016 and 2020, with over 71,000 new fitness and health apps being reported by analytics firm App Annie during the same period. Consequently, fitness app downloads have increased by 156%, which translates to 58 million new active users in 2020. Even before the Covid disruption, the nutritional and fitness startup space had interpreted this opportunity to serve the rising number of health and fitness enthusiasts as a result of this shift.
Influence of the Pandemic on Placing a Premium on Health and Nutrition
The pandemic underlined the need for proper diet and physical activity. By emphasizing health and nutrition, the necessity to battle chronic illnesses such as diabetes, hypertension, stress, and anxiety has become a priority. A fresh emphasis on adopting a healthy diet has finally resulted in enhanced productivity, discipline, and an active lifestyle. By adopting a healthier lifestyle, one’s prospects of overcoming unforeseen illnesses are greatly improved. This idea has contributed to the expansion of health and fitness apps while boosting the consumption of nutritional and health supplements.
Wearables Add Flexibility to Accomplishing Fitness Goals
In the last five years, fitness wearables have been at the forefront of an industry-wide transformation, empowering their users to maintain their physical health and mental agility. These devices are no longer only data measurement accessories but are integrating data and usage metrics with other smart exercising devices, fitness and diet training apps, and mindfulness activity trackers. Startups are leading the way in bridging the gap between reality and fitness goals by digitally aiding their customers, regardless of their actual location, to meet the required activity or exercise goals. Virtual fitness experiences contribute to the novel aspects of the technology that are rapidly establishing a quantitative and qualitative benchmark for actual transformation. These creative solutions have already created the groundwork for accomplishing fitness objectives, using a mechanism and method that are both adaptable and achievable.
Partnerships With Fitness Centres and Corporate Wellness Initiatives
Fitness and wellness firms have traditionally leveraged corporate partnerships as a growth strategy. However, the post-pandemic emphasis on fitness and nutrition has expanded corporate interest. This integration assists companies with benefits, health insurance programs, and employee fitness initiatives to manage workplace stress and enhance employee wellbeing. These holistic wellness initiatives provide workers with seamless integration and usher in long-term health advantages for the organisation. In addition to organizing random and tailored fitness events for intercompany participation, fitness brands also promote the adoption of fitness and weight management programs by hosting random and customized fitness initiatives.
Ingredients are foundational to health and nutrition products and these are witnessing a surge in popularity among fitness enthusiasts. The emphasis on product orientation and specialization is one of the most important marketing techniques used by fitness brands. Most fitness brands provide health and nutrition items that are loaded with multivitamins, vital minerals, omega-3 fatty acids, and other supplements. Multivitamins, essential minerals, Omega 3 supplements, and probiotics are, thus, some of the most prominent fitness and nutritional ingredients.
Increased product awareness among the consumers has shifted the spotlight to brands that emphasize innovative ingredients in their products. This strategy is reflected in the approach in which customers choose brands that are transparent about the relevance of product ingredients in achieving their fitness and wellness goals. Nutrition experts and fitness coaches are more likely to promote brands, whose products are based on scientifically validated and properly researched ingredients. Products capable of bridging the protein deficiency gap by restoring the adequate nutritional balance in the diet will ultimately gain more acceptance and adoption among fitness enthusiasts.
Brands Focusing On Garnering High Product Reviews With Satisfied Consumers
Products that are high on reviews are expected to gain prominence as they are referred by satisfied consumers with word of mouth strategy being a strong driver across sectors. Fitness startups are introducing a diverse product line that is superior to market offerings and strives to promote health and educate customers to enable wise and healthy decisions. Multivitamins, essential minerals, Omega 3 supplements, and probiotics are among the most popular fitness and nutritional products. These innovative products utilise ‘enzyme technology’ which helps break down protein efficiently and enables the body to maximize the absorption of amino acids. This breakdown of whey protein into its smallest components avoids any digestive discomfort and caters to consumers who advertise the product among their circle of influence. Catering to consumer’s convenience, these products are also becoming travel friendly and are being made available in compact and ‘mini’ travel sachets to help consumers maintain nutritional requirements while travelling.
Today’s constantly changing consumer preferences have been addressed by emerging technological advancements that will continue to influence the fitness industry’s growth trajectory. In conclusion, these rising opportunities to address customer needs will help startups redefine their approach with innovative growth strategies.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved byUpnourish.
Due to the increasing pressure of modern life and despite the adverse effects it has on our health, people tend to get less sleep and work more. Poor work-life balance leads to chronic stress and impacts mental health and physical health equally. The industry of Health and Wellness is growing as per the demands of health needs in the current busy lifestyle. The global wellness market is valued at $1.5 trillion. It is growing with annual growth of 5 to 10%. Health and wellness market value is estimated to grow by USD 1300 billion by 2024 and Nutritional supplements market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 6.2%.
People aim to enjoy the busy lifestyle and aspires to stay equally healthy. Upnourish has brought the solution to this need. Founded by Nutritionist, the startup provides a range of nutrition products as meal replacement.
Know about Upnourish company, founders, business model, and its startup story.
Upnourish is India’s digital first D2C focused meal replacement product venture enabling people to eat healthy with all the nutrition yet low on calories while they lead their busy lives. Upnourish aims to be a part of every individual’s life who leads on-the-go lifestyle yet aspires to be healthy. Upnourish aims to be market disruptor and category leader when it comes to healthy on-the-go snacking/meals category.
Upnourish – Founders
Upnourish Founders
Kuonal Lakhapati and Aayushi Lakhapati are co-founder at Upnourish. Kuonal Lakhapati is the CEO at UpNourish. Ayushi is a certified Nutritionist.
It was their mutual decision to embark on this journey to build Upnourish and 23BMI. Kuonal handles all the operations and business functions whereas Aayushi heads product R&D and client management.
Upnourish – Startup Idea
Kuonal Lakhapati was leading a very hectic life while being the founding member India’s leading company in Logistics tech space. Building a startup was demanding. His days were extended and hardly had a fixed schedule since he was traveling extensively. Moreover, he had no knowledge or awareness about healthy food, importance of timing etc. Had many misconceptions too. Unfortunately, he gained quite a bit of weight making me very uncomfortable. However, he had known Aayushi (Co Founder, 23BMI) and knew she came from the world of nutrition and wellness. He told her that he wanted to lose weight but could not hit the gym due to lack of time. He asked her to guide as he had no nutrition knowledge.
Aayushi was experimenting with her idea of Meal Replacement Products and she decided to make some samples and try them on me. He tried them and lost 10 Kgs in 28 days! That is when he realised this is revolutionary and if he was facing this issue of not able to hit gym, prepare healthy food that can be carried easily, there are millions out there like me. And, they could solve this problem offering convenience. That’s when they decided to start manufacturing Meal Replacement Products.
They made some samples and tried them with friends and family. They tested it thoroughly, did pre-post medical check ups and once they were absolutely through, they finally launched them. They did speak to some medical and health experts, marketing experts, branding experts, before they thought of jumping into the world of meal replacements. Most of them were in agreement of the problem statement, market need and the proposed solution. However, they had to get the product formulation right and had to conduct trials before finalising the formulation.
Upnourish – Mission and Vision
As people get aspirational, busier, competitive, their health will take a backseat. Hence, Upnourish is working to make health and nutritional food convenient to all such people so they do not have to compromise on their health goals. Upnourish also targets weight watchers who would want to maintain to keep their underlying conditions like diabetes, cholesterol, thyroid, PCOD/PCOS, etc concerns under control.
Upnourish – Name, Tagline, and Logo
Upnourish Logo
The core idea behind choosing Upnourish as our brand name was simple as they wanted people to up their nutrition game.
Upnourish – Business Model
Upnourish’s business model is very simple and just like any other e-commerce company. Upnourish’s major revenues come from it’s own website which is about 70%. The rest of the revenue streams are online market places like Amazon, Healthkart, Wellversed, etc.
Upnourish – Products & Services
Upnourish Products
Meal Replacement products are packed with all the essential nutrition in terms of protein, fiber, carbs, multivitamins, etc in 60% lesser the calories that a body requires from one meal which is usually very difficult to achieve via natural meal by any individual with basic nutritional knowledge. Hence, on regular consumption of the meal replacement products, one experiences increased energy levels, fat loss, better health, etc.
They are making it very convenient to carry your own on-the-go nutritious meal which provides all the vital nutrition for fitness/health focused individuals.
They did go through couple of iterations before they could find the perfect formulation of the product. Basis on the extensive feedback, they realized they could make the product even better and hence, had to work through a couple of iterations.
Upnourish is the D2C focused, ecommerce arm where as 23BMI is our consultancy arm for people who need dedicated health coach services.
Upnourish team majorly focused on performance marketing to acquire customers via social media platforms. They acquired first 100 customers in less than 10 days.
Branding, communication, product innovation and most importantly listening to our customers has been the key to understand the growth path for the company. They are currently focusing on increasing our product visibility via online marketplaces and some selected offline modern stores. A couple of ad campaigns of our products did really well specially in the Tier – 2/3 markets which essentially focused on explaining how one could replace one/two unhealthy eating options with meal replacement products. They are currently spending 50% of revenues on marketing.
Upnourish is just few months old. It is headquartered in Mumbai. Upnourish has clocked about INR 15lacs revenue with 55% gross profit. Upnourish has more than 1200+ subscriber. Upnourish’s clients are some notable HNI’s, politicians, sportsmen, celebrities, etc along with fitness focused individuals across India.
Upnourish – Challenges Faced
Amongst many, one of the major challenges they faced were getting the MOQs for products, packaging since to get high MOQ was not feasible. They had to really get into the sourcing to be able to achieve feasible MOQs. They did some experiments with low MOQ packaging, printing until they could get the desired MOQs.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Eggoz Nutrition.
Health conscious lifestyle is the new trend. People are adopting healthier lifestyles and nutritious diets. They have become good customers of health focussed brands. Eggs are nutritionally rich, that supplies almost every nutrient needed for a healthy body. They are useful sources of some of the hard to get nutrients like vitamins D, B12, and the mineral iodine.
Eggoz Nutrition is a startup creating awareness about consuming healthier eggs. It delivers fresh and chemical-free eggs from lay to the table within 24 hours. They are produced in tech-enabled & nutrition-engineered deep integration partnerships with farmers. They have introduced new enriched variants of eggs.
Know the startup story of Eggoz, its founders, funding details, business model, competitors, and more.
Listen to Abhishek Negi telling the story of Eggoz in an Interview with StartupTalky
Eggoz Nutrition was incepted with a vision of helping society with free from anti-biotic, farm-fresh eggs at the doorsteps of consumers across the country. Also, Eggoz is committed to increasing farmers’ profitability by providing them technological, strategic, and business consulting support. Their strategic collaborations with both urban and rural farms helped them overcome many operational challenges and achieving the company’s vision.
Since all the operations mainly depend on state-of-art technology to ensure the collection of reliable data and real-time monitoring of the egg farms, Eggoz successfully deals with issues such as low production, inadequate storage capacity and disorganized distribution channel.
Backed by visionary leadership and a proficient team, Eggoz is setting new quality standards in the industry and enjoying a good market share. And, with the motto of ‘Happy Hens, Healthier Eggs’, Eggoz is winning the hearts of health-conscious consumers. Recently, the company received Series-A funding of $3.5 million, led by NABVENTURES, a VC fund anchored by NABARD. Other funding participants include top names like Avaana Capital, Rebright Partners and Bellerive Capital along with angel investors Sanjiv Rangrass and Indresh Saluja.
Eggoz Nutrition – Industry
There is an upward trend in people adopting healthier lifestyles and nutritious diets in the Tier-I and Tier-II cities. Moreover, these cities are also advancing into bigger markets leading to opening up humongous business opportunities, and Eggoz is doing its best to tap these opportunities.
Eggoz aims to eventually expand its network to different parts of India to reach millions of buyers. The company also intends to streamline its onboarding experience for farmers, where they will get access to tech information, veterinarian advisory support, and other resources to improve productivity. Eggoz is determined to have a significant Pan India presence in the next 2 years with brand development and market expansion.
Eggoz is investing in building the category and spreading awareness about fresh and healthier eggs. Company plans to expand the technology and platform offerings to its partner farmers and support with more aspects of farming lifecycle.
In the last five years, Eggoz has emerged as the first egg brand in India that focuses on freshness, nutrient-profile, and quality of egg produce. And, Mr. Negi’s vision to ensure profitability for rural farmers and expand the network of Eggoz to various cities and towns, is witnessing a palpable realization.
Eggoz Nutrition – Founders and Team
Abhishek Negi – Co-founder of Eggoz
Abhishek Negi, Uttam Kumar, Aditya Singh, and Pankaj Pandey are founders of EggoZ Nutrition.
Abhishek Negi is an alumnus of the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. After getting his engineering degree, Mr. Negi started his journey with Vodafone and was involved in stints spanning across sales, retail, technology, finance & supply chain. With an eye on developing a home-grown and unique brand, he co-founded Roder in Delhi. Roder was an outstation transport service, which changed the overall customers’ approach to booking single-sided intercity journeys. Inspired by many other ambitious & futuristic entrepreneurs, Mr. Negi started Eggoz with his partners – Uttam Kumar, Aditya Singh, and Pankaj Pandey in 2017. Eggoz has emerged as the first egg brand in India that focuses on freshness, nutrient-profile, and quality of egg produce. Mr. Negi’s vision is to ensure profitability for rural farmers and expand the network of Eggoz to various cities and towns, including Tier-II and Tier-III cities.
In the future, Mr. Negi hopes to develop Eggoz into a brand that customers can rely on, not merely for the quality of product but also for the brand’s practices. Eggoz will eventually allow consumers to express their solidarity with rural farmers, who have been struggling with effective distribution of egg produce for years now. Apart from his current ventures, Mr. Negi also hopes to nurture and support other entrepreneurs and startups in exploring the Indian market through his expertise.
Eggoz Nutrition – Startup Story
Growing up, Abhishek has always been fond of eating eggs on a daily basis. After departing from his first start up, keeping fit and eating healthy became his primary goals and it was during this phase that he realized the impact of protein rich diet. He could not my get hands on freshly sourced and good quality eggs. The ones that he obtained in Gurgaon were either stale or exposed to chemicals, making them detrimental for health. These facts are bewildering for a nation, where the consumption of eggs is exponentially rising with the current figures standing tall at 86 eggs per person each year. However, a mighty chunk of these eggs do not qualify quality checks, are sold in unpackaged form and are stripped off 50 to 60 per cent of the minimum nutritional value. Eggoz, he along with other founders collated this data after extensive analysis, which was conducted by experts by studying egg samples sourced from all across India. It was also found that other factors such as delay in harvesting of eggs, failure in implementation of cold chain and regular use of antibiotics, growth hormones and detrimental chemicals, also contribute in making of eggs that lack freshness and quality.
After perceiving the changing consumer preferences and the inevitable market shift towards packaged goods, it was only prudent to invest in this untapped market. Although they had their prior market research and figures in place, members of the founding team had to toil hard in the farms in order to gain on-ground insights and experience. Working with a company that owned a 12,000 bird farm initially gave them the appropriate acumen to comprehend the nitty-gritty of poultry farming such as setting up the farm, deployment of day old chicks, vaccination procedure, feed formulation, egg sales, diagnosis etc. This gave business plan the impetus to gradually migrate to a robust and technology backed farming installations at any poultry farm to get standardized output. By the end of 2019, business operations of Eggoz rose exponentially asthey joined forces with 6 farms and had amassed a bird capacity of 80,000. Amidst pandemic, because of high level quality checks including UV-sanitization treatments and omni-channel distribution networks, Eggoz continued to acquire more market share by expanding into 6 cities across 5 North Indian states.
Eggoz brings to the table finest quality eggs, which are freshly sourced, treated with UV- sanitization after procurement, rich with bio-available protein and vitamins, and are free from avoidable hormones, antibiotics, and chemicals. The robust integrated model of Eggoz allows to collaborate with farmers and deploy IoT & technology backed applications, reducing the gap in the procurement and supply of eggs in just 24 hours.
Another glaring concern that Eggoz has tried to address is the unavailability of effective backward market linkages for poultry farmers, and lack of hygienic and packaged format of eggs sale. Transparency and ability to incorporate technology oriented solutions have led to an efficient supply chain management and this is what makes the startup stand out in the egg farming industry. Maintenance of top level quality checks, real time monitoring of birds coupled regular doctor visits and audits of the farm and widespread omnichannel distribution channel is inextricably linked to satisfaction of customers, income amelioration of farmers and credibility of Eggoz company.
Eggoz Nutrition – Business Model
Eggoz is a vertically integrated farm-to-consumer startup, which had adopted an asset-light business model in order to unite with small and mid-scale farmers. By virtue of this collaboration, the farmers are on-boarded to a streamlined program where they receive technological support, and other auxiliary aid such as veterinarian visits and audits. With this structure the goal is to bring superior quality eggs sourced from farms under the brand of Eggoz and cater it to the urban and semi-urban consumers. With an omnichannel distribution model in place, the company can ensure widespread presence through D2C, Online MTs, Offline MTs and General trade.
Eggoz Nutrition – Customer Acquisition
When Eggoz was started, the plan was clear that getting hold of the first 100 customers will be toilsome, but if done smartly these 100 customers would prove to be the most paramount. Within 2.5 years of establishing the company, their farming integration model had witnessed two major launches amassing a bird capacity of 1,00,000 and 10 farms. Their visions and operations at Eggoz was backed by angel investment worth INR 1.2 crore during its inception in 2017 and seed funding of INR 2.2 crore in 2019. The company’s stable and ever increasing return on investment and improving farm performance was the reason behind Eggoz’s brand expansion to six cities across five north Indian states in the year 2021. By delivering consistent fresh quality, they started to gain significant traction among consumers.
Eggoz soon rose to fame because of its prompt delivery of fresh and packaged eggs straight from farm under a time frame of 24 hours of laying. Moreover, growing health consciousness and significant upsurge in demand for hygienic and packaged eggs has worked in favor of Eggoz’s business goals. With the aim of accomplishing first nationwide farm-to-consumer brand that is centered around superior quality, high bioavailable nutrition and freshness, Eggoz has struck a chord with the Indian demographic.
Eggoz Nutrition – Funding
Date
Stage
Amount
Investors
2021
Series A
$3.5 Million
NABVENTURES
2019
Seed Funding
$2.2 Million
2017
Angel Funding
$1.2 Million
Eggoz was started in 2017, the strategic and tactical business plan was found worthy enough to secure an angel funding of $1.2 million by Sanjiv Rangrass and Indresh Saluja. The financial succor provided by angel investors helped lay the foundation of the company and aided the running of its operations on earliest of their farms. In 2017-2018, Eggoz had begun its foremost expansion plans in the state of Madhya Pradesh and had acquired a total of 60,000 birds resulting in a major return on investment. In 2019 as its popularity grew, they procured a massive seed funding amounting to $2.2 Million. The funds were extremely valuable for a budding company like Eggoz, not only did they envisage to work closely with the farmers and improve their egg productivity by introducing technology backed solution, but they also had to enhance farmer profitability through innovative and extensive market linkages. Ever since they have contemplated for diversifying Eggoz product portfolio, there has been an upswing in its demand. This has made the startup raise a series-A funding of $3.5 Million, led by NABVENTURES. With this funding, Eggoz intends to increase its brand footprint, launch egg-based value-added products, and enter new geographies.
Eggoz Nutrition – Advisors
The company kick started with the four business enthusiasts coming together and ever since that it has remained like that. With a highly proficient team, the company has become competent to abreast any uncertainty ranging from on-field problems, technology support, appraisal of business plans or even social media marketing.
Eggoz Nutrition – Challenges Faced
When founders set up Eggoz, the founding team did not have requisite knowledge and expertise in poultry farming. This certainly was one of the setbacks when they started which they had to address so as to deploy high yielding farm. Working on ground helped them gain the required knowledge and made Eggoz team competent to determine how to upgrade the farms with technology oriented solutions. As soon as they acquired this intelligence, Eggoz was prepared to scale-up its production facilities and extend its supply chains.
In its early days, Eggoz founders were experimenting with various kinds of feed ingredients which were natural, protein rich as well as better for the hens. However, scaling the production of such ingredients was a major challenge due to the nature of its production. This is why, they decided to shelf this plan for later.
Eggoz Nutrition – Marketing Campaign
Eggoz Marketing Campaign – Extra in the Ordinary
Recently Eggoz has launched a campaign “Extra in the Ordinary” which aims at uplifting the spirit of Indian diaspora enabling them to recognize their true potential. There is an increasing demand for hygienic and decontaminated perishable eatables. This is why with “Extra in the Ordinary” campaign is important to emphasize the fact how a daily dose of Eggoz nutrition helps make people Extra In The Ordinary. This campaign was instrumental in enlarging the consumer base, increase the brand’s credibility, acquire new consumers, and raise awareness about how essential it is to consume superior quality and standard quality eggs.
The crux of Eggoz was always adaptation of technology oriented solutions in poultry for high yielding egg farms. And they stuck to their plan ensuring real time monitoring of farms to identify and assess the deviations that may influence the quality and productivity of eggs and farm respectively. Data played an important role in optimizing the bird performance and making business forecasts. As a start-up they were aware that they needed a solid customer relationship management plan in place in order to centralize all business activities and keep them customer-centric. Investing in an influential and relevant marketing strategy helped them create its extensive omni-channel distribution network. Moving forward, they are planning for a pervasive digital marketing campaign which will play a key role in enlarging its customer base and also stay engaged with the current customer base.
Eggoz Nutrition – Recognition and Achievements
Eggoz has been fortunate to have been recognized for its excellence so early in its journey. They were proclaimed the winner of ET Leaders of Tomorrow (Winner) in the year 2020 and the finalist of Aegis Graham Bell Award (Agri-Tech) (Finalist) in 2021. Such accomplishments are testaments of the dedicated efforts of quality service and customer satisfaction.
Eggoz Nutrition – Future Plans
In 2022, Eggoz will be climbing up the ladders by deepening it penetration amongst the Indian demographic. With aggressive and well thought of plans on table, Eggoz intends to enter new markets and transform the egg supply chains. Being one of the proponents in the agri-tech sector, they are aiming to extend the technology integrated solutions and applications to partner farmers, and provide consistent support to ensure an even more productive farming lifecycle. They have strategized and conducted prior market research as they look forward to entering markets down south and west of India.
FAQs
Who is the founder of Eggoz?
Abhishek Negi, Uttam Kumar, Aditya Singh, and Pankaj Pandey are founders of EggoZ Nutrition.
When was Eggoz founded?
Eggoz was founded in 2017 at Gurugram.
What does Eggoz do?
Eggoz provides farm-fresh, UV- sanitized, antibiotics-free, and chemical-free packaged eggs within 24 hours.
What are the products of Eggoz?
Eggoz products includes finest quality of eggs, which are freshly sourced, treated with UV- sanitization, rich with bio-available protein and vitamins, and are free from avoidable hormones, antibiotics, and chemicals.
Arbaz Sayed
