Inside BENEO’s new pulse plant: pioneering sustainable protein from faba beans
To serve 100 million Indians by making scientifically backed and tested low-carb products
Bajo Foods, the parent company of Bengaluru-based Keto Brand – Lo! Foods, has raised funding of $2 million for its two new first-of-their-kind product ranges in India – DiabeSmart and Protein Chef. Mount Judi Ventures is the lead anchor in this funding round, its first investment in the FMCG space.
Strong investors participated in this fundraiser, including S Ramadorai (Former VC TCS), KP Balaraj, founder of KPB Trust (Former co-founder of Sequoia Capital India and WestBridge Capital). With this funding, the FMCG startup expects to grow by 3.5 times in the next 18 months.
Bajo Foods plans to use the fundraising for brand building of its new product ranges and expanding its channels to offline retail, B2B, and hospitals. It will also look to bolster its leadership team in branding and revenue generation to drive its growth ambitions.
Aiming to impact health at scale, Bajo Foods mission is to reduce the number of carbohydrates that India consumes to 50 percent (from 75 to 85 percent). With their new product lines, they intend to serve 100 million Indians by making scientifically backed and tested low-carb products.
DiabeSmart, which is a new brand built specifically for diabetics, is the first diabetes specialist food product range at scale. The products have been tested to have a 35-50 percent lower blood glucose spike compared to regular food products.
Protein Chef, another brand that has been soft-launched, provides a low carb high protein powder, that can be added to cooking. Its plant-based, no-chemical product range aims to solve protein deficiency in India, based on Indian food habits at a 60 percent lower cost to consumers.