TruNativ aims to revolutionize India’s health and nutraceutical space through its range of high-quality nutritional, healthy, and chemical-free food and beverage products
Delhi, April 13, 2021: 9Unicorns, India’s first early-stage accelerator VC fund, has recently led the seed funding round in TruNativ, a “smart nutrition” company dedicated to empowering health and fitness enthusiasts with affordable and healthy food & beverage options. In a market where processed and unhealthy food products have become so common, TruNativ strives to create more transparent, nutritionally balanced, and healthy alternatives for people who care about nature and health. Backed by science, tested and re-tested for quality, TruNativ’s products bring to you real ingredients of nature and their goodness stacked on the shelves. Other co-investors include Ashutosh Valani, Founder, Beardo and Priyank Shah, Founder, Beardo, Anshul Punhani, Ex-CMO, Monster and Vikas Bagaria, Founder, Peesafe.
An entrepreneur since the age of 15 years, Pranav completed his graduation from Mumbai University and went on to study Entrepreuership Essentials from the Hardvard Business School to go on to start TruNativ. TruNativ’s inspiration comes from nature and its bounty where every functional ingredient has a healing effect on people. On the back of its unique range of FMCG products directly drawn from nature with minimum processing, TruNativ has set out to revolutionize India’s health and nutraceutical space. Its mission is aligned with the shift in consumer behaviour and sensibilities away from unhealthy, processed food and beverage options available today in the market. Inspired by the Government’s vision of providing holistic nutrition to Indians under its POSHAN Abhiyaan, TruNativ is dedicated to populating the shelves of the country’s grocery stores with high quality nutritional, healthy, and chemical-free products for customers who prefer eating healthy food. The brand is also committed to ensuring that the customers gain transparent access to the ingredients that actually go into the making of its healthy, purely natural range of products.
Speaking on the investment, Pranav Malhotra, Founder – TruNativ, commented, “We are extremely thrilled to be associating with 9Unicorns. It’s about time that Indian consumers know what they are consuming before they consume it. Today, people are more critical of the ingredients when they buy food products. They are walking away from preservatives, chemicals, and unnatural products. TruNativ is an effort to provide a range of clean and nutritious offerings in unique FMCG product formats, with ingredients that are only and truly natural without any artificial addition to them. We thank 9Unicorns for believing in our venture. We are confident that their expertise and guidance will help us scale new heights.”
Pranav has been instrumental in expanding his family business achieving Y2Y growth rate of over 700 % in the nutraceutical space. On knowing the dearth of 73% undernourishment amongst rich urban Indians , he decided to start Trunativ to create nutritionally complete yet convenient products along with an easy nutrient delivery system for all ages.
Dr Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, MD & Co-founder – 9Unicorns, said, “Health- and environment-conscious individuals in urban India are increasingly looking to consume the F&B options that are not only healthy, nutrition-laden, and natural in terms of their constituent ingredients but also sourced and processed in a way that doesn’t harm the environment. Take a look, for instance, at products containing whey protein that are gaining increasing popularity, with the whey protein industry projected to reach $3.03 billion by 2023. Until recently, only a limited range of suitable options was available to Indians who prefer eating and living healthy, resulting in a huge, unaddressed gap in the market. A lack of any sizeable competition in the healthy instant mix market provides TruNativ with a strategic advantage to capture a lion’s share of India’s functional F&B market on the back of its assorted range of Whey Protein and FROAT products.”
Anshul Punhani, Ex-CMO, Monster said, “India’s F&B market is currently witnessing a burgeoning demand for healthy, chemical-free, and instant-mix food products. On the back of its unique range of products, TruNativ is equipped to meet this demand while establishing its leadership position in this space. The company’s market-readiness is complemented by its strong founding team driven by iron-clad determination. We are confident that TruNativ will usher in a nutraceutical revolution in the country’s FMCG space. We wish them continued success.”
TruNativ is a D2C business that sells its products through its website as well as various other e-commerce portals. Moving forward, it aims to expand its footprint by selling through retail stores, supermarkets, and big malls across the country. The company is also focusing on building its network of influencers including gym trainers, nutritionists, yoga trainers, etc., and rolling out referral and loyalty reward programs to bolster its market presence in the coming years.
About 9Unicorns
9Unicorns is India’s First Accelerator VC. It provides acceleration support & seed funding to early-stage startups. 9Unicorns provides funding of $100K – $200K per startup in the first round, and may invest further $500K-$2Mn in successive rounds with its co-investors. From idea stage to angel stage, it supports startups across various themes & sectors.
9Unicorns’ strength & focus is on a hands-on support ecosystem for startups, beyond capital. 9Unicorns, besides investment, opens doors to the startups for access to a wide network of successful founders, category-leaders, CXOs of large corporations, seasoned angel investors & partners of global VC funds. Every portfolio company receives an acceleration support for 3 months & post-investment support of 18 months.
For more information, please reach out to info@9unicorns.in or find more information at www.9unicorns.in
