Mumbai, Feb 15 (PTI) Bengaluru-based healthy snacks startup Lil’ Goodness is entering the Northeast and three other markets along with Southeast Asia with physical stores, ahead of its next round of fund-raising. The company was founded in 2018 by Harshvardhan S, who set up the online medical consultancy Tata Health, and is backed by UST Global ex-head honcho Sajan Pillai.
Lil’ Goodness was commercially launched in May 2020 and went live on Amazon. It has 500 stores in five cities already.
As part of physical expansion, it is entering Sikkim, Meghalaya, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh, where it already nets 16 percent of its online sales, and also Madhya Pradesh, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam this month.
It has physical stores in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai and Surat.
Earlier this month it entered north Gujarat and Ahmedabad, founder and chief executive Harshvardhan, who is a Tata group veteran having spent nearly a decade there, told PTI.
He launched Tata Health, the online medical consultancy arm of the Tatas, in 2015 during his days with Tata Industries.
Come April, Lil’ Goodness will also be heading overseas with entry into Southeast Asia, he said.
Lil’ Goodness makes products like prebiotic chocolates and prebiotic dark chocolates and other healthy snacks. Some of its brand include B12 Jaggery and sCoolmeal, which is a meal subscription service for school children and children at day-care centres.
The company has so far raised USD 1.5 million — USD 4 lakh from Sajan Pillai in 2018 for a 20 per cent stake; USD 5 lakh from the Wazirani family office in late 2019; VC fund Beyond Next and the Japanese fund VFN own 18 per cent for USD 5 lakh investment. Harshvardhan owns the remaining 40 per cent equity.
He said he is looking at another fundraise in a series-A round over the next four-five weeks, but refused to share more details, saying the term sheet is yet to be signed.
The company had closed 2021 with a revenue of Rs 1.4 crore, and is eyeing around Rs 5 crore this year on the back of expansion. It has sold over 1 million units of prebiotic chocolates so far at Rs 20 apiece, he said. PTI BEN ABM ABM
