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Amarpreet Singh Anand, Co-founder of Good Monk (SuperFoods Valley)
India’s preventive nutrition space is rapidly evolving, with startups exploring innovative ways to integrate essential micronutrients into everyday diets. One of the sector’s emerging focus areas is the development of heat-stable, bioavailable formulations that can withstand traditional Indian cooking practices while ensuring efficacy. This requires addressing challenges of ingredient selection, nutrient stability, bioavailability, and consumer acceptance—particularly in staple foods such as dal, roti, and sabji. In this conversation with NUFFOODS Spectrum, Amarpreet Singh Anand, Co-founder of Good Monk (SuperFoods Valley), discusses the R&D journey, regulatory environment, and broader trends shaping the functional nutrition and invisible fortification segment in India. Edited excerpts;
Your products claim to be “invisible nutrition.” Can you walk us through the R&D process that made this concept scalable and safe? How do you ensure bioavailability and stability of sensitive nutrients like iron, folate, or vitamin D in your mixes—especially when added to hot or cooked food?
When working with nutrition and wellness, one of the critical aspects are choice of ingredients and the synthesis of the same in the human gut to ensure absorption. We work with highly bio-available ingredients that are heat stable & clean as a foundation principle for development. We have a panel of nutrition experts who help us identify the ingredient and craft the formulation. The overall R&D process involved a rigorous approach to select & blend different nutrients at different levels across multiple foods & check whether it impacts any sensorial of taste, color or smell. Through thousands of such experiments – we are able to establish a patented approach to building a no sensorial change formula when added to multiple foods.
What are the biggest scientific challenges in formulating everyday Indian foods like dal, sabji, or roti?
As Indians we all love our meal time. Meals are more of an emotion for us as opposed to nutrition and the biggest challenge facing us was how to add nutrition without ruining the experience. One of the foremost steps to which was building the formulation with no taste maskers, added salt, sugar or preservatives. Good Monk offers the right blend of nutrients and to deliver that, it requires a very rigorous R&D approach.
What kind of ingredient partners or technology providers do you work with?
We have a very strong team of nutritionists and a diverse network of R&D lab partners that work rigorously to identify ingredients and create formulations that align with our goal of demystifying nutrition and making it hassle free. We work with some of the country’s best ingredient suppliers & work with second generation nutraceutical manufacturers which uphold highest quality standards in manufacturing of both ingredients & the finished product.
With the recent $2 million investment, what is your long-term vision for Good Monk?
Good Monk started with the goal to make India healthier through hassle free nutrition and have been able to reach over 100,000 consumers as of now. Our goal is to support over 1 Cr Indian Households to easily fortify their daily meals with clean, easy to use & effective nutrients to help them improve their energy & overall health.
Currently, your brand seems D2C-focused. Are there any plans to expand into B2B collaborations, such as partnerships with food brands, QSR chains, or institutional kitchens?
As a brand, we are striving to connect with our consumers to serve them best and our D2C channel has helped us interact with our consumers first-hand. It has helped us tremendously in crafting our current portfolio of products and planning our future innovations, based on consumer feedback. As we move ahead, we will try reaching out to our consumers through multiple touch points. We will serve the consumer,wherever they want to engage with the brand, and we can leverage our intel inside philosophy with B2B collaborations as well. The promise of Good monk will ensure you have fortified your meals with key nutrients without changing any sensorial properties. It’s a part of our future endeavors and we will stay committed to providing the right nutrition to Indian households.
How aligned is India’s current regulatory and policy environment with the needs of nutrition-tech startups like yours?
India’s regulatory & policy environment is extremely stringent about its guidelines, thereby keeping consumer interest at the top. They are very supportive & encouraging of the needs of young start-ups that are trying to solve a consumer problem. The system provides clear guidelines in most areas – it provides fair clarity on what we can / cannot do. As brands, we need to ensure that consumer welfare is primary and as long as we work within the guidelines and abide by policies, the system facilitates brands.
What are the next big product categories or demographics you are planning to target (e.g., elderly, athletes, diabetics)?
It’s interesting that you ask, one of our biggest best sellers is Healthy 50+ which is catering to the health of Indians above the age of 50. This has given us so much insight into what the consumers are lacking and looking for, which thereby helps us innovate to solve prevailing consumer problems. We are getting significant traction amongst the elderly & kids population & will continue to double down on the needs for both the segments.
What trends do you foresee shaping the future of preventive and functional nutrition in India’s mainstream food industry?
India’s F&B future is preventive nutrition with functional solutions. Consumers’ demand for clean, easy to use & effective nutrient solutions is going to explode across multiple areas & not only restrict to a few generic areas. Evidence based claims along with some level of personalisation and customisation will drive higher affinity and stickiness with brands. Brands that are able to integrate tech solutions that help consumers identify their challenges and solve them, will stay ahead of competition. Consumers demand for effectiveness over natural or any other trend/fad will clearly help differentiate between winners.
Could you walk us through Good Monk’s total revenue for FY 2024? Which product category contributed the most, and what growth are you projecting for FY 2025
We are currently tracking > Rs 24Cr annualised revenue & have grown by multifold over the last 16-18 months. We expect to continue to grow disproportionately in the coming financial year. The goal is to reach Rs 100 Cr ARR in the next 2 years.
What would your advice be to upcoming nutrition-tech startups looking to raise funds and scale in this highly regulated and competitive space?
It is critical to identify clear consumer opportunities, and need gaps, and how your brand can solve it. Offer something which is superior & differentiated that will genuinely make a consumer’s life easier. Consumer love & satisfaction is the only truth that matters, if you are able to win their hearts, you will build a great business & funding etc will follow. So chase whether you have the winning product and then identify the consumer that will be your initial taker, who will invariably be your strongest advocate as well.
Mansi Jamsudkar Padvekar