They broke ranks from the annual placement rat-race and crore-dreams and decided to set up their own shop. Now, their alma mater Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad’s technology business incubator, Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE), has invested an undisclosed amount in their venture, WIMWI Foods which aims to bring healthy food ingredients and snacks to Indian kitchens and offices.
The investment round was led by CIIE, with participation from Ahmedabad-based angel investors Siddharth Jain and Dinesh Bindal.
WIMWI Foods was founded by alumni of IIM-A, Kanupradeep Subramanian and Srishti Shaw, who decided to pursue a common passion and try to bring a change to the Indian food stage with products which offer better eating options and healthier ingredients.
As a first step, the company introduced healthy Shiitake mushrooms under its own brand ‘Le Gourmetz - the foodies’. Known as the jewel of the oriental cuisine, these mushrooms are popular across the globe for their ‘earthy umami flavour’ and exquisite taste.
They are currently selling at more than 200 retail stores across metros and Tier-1 cities at major retail chains and also have strong online sales through portals like Amazon.in and BigBasket.com, a spokesperson said on Monday.
The company foresees a huge opportunity in providing healthy and interesting snacking solutions for the urban Indian lifestyle Vipul Patel, Associate Vice-President, Agri Investments, CIIE, said. “They plan to utilise the investment to develop a portfolio of healthy snacks and strengthen their distribution across the country. Through this, they are on a mission to build the next billion dollar consumer brand in India,” he added.
Srishti Shaw, Co-founder, WIMWI Foods, said, “Healthy eating is what everyone wants, but most of us end up eating junk and feel guilty about it. We see a huge opportunity to create disruptive solutions here. We want to introduce healthy and interesting snacking solutions that will offer the benefit of convenience without feeling guilty.”
Jain said that WIMWI foods is a high potential business with mentoring from IIM-A and CIIE and a huge network of over 200 stores for distribution.
WIMWI Foods is a FMCG company created with a vision to bring in healthier food options with inspirations from across the world to Indian consumers. They aim to create consumer brands synonymous with health and quality which act as a seamless addition to the traditional Indian diet.
The company is currently a part of IIMAvericks Programme, a CIIE initiative, which invites IIM Ahmedabad alumni to pledge their support for graduating students, who want to tread the unconventional path of entrepreneurship.