Nutrition start-up by VNIT students bags Rs 20 lakh govt funding in Maharashtra

NAGPUR: A startup on curated nutrition marketplace launched by two third-year BTech students of VNIT has bagged them Rs 20lakh funding under the central government’s Start-up India Seed Funding (SISF).
Krushna Pandhare, who hails from Khamgaon, had been working on the concept for the last six months before he came up with his startup FoodVez.com. The marketplace allows user to choose a tailor-made nutrition package for themselves from the vast pool of available products.
“Our mission is to make healthy eating accessible, convenient, and enjoyable for everyone. Thus, I came up with the idea to have a platform that will be a one-stop nutrition marketplace to change the way people shop for health and nutritious food products. We offer a curated selection of high-quality, natural and sustainable food products from trusted brands around the world. The best part is users will no longer have to waste time searching for the best products,” said Pandhare, CEO, FoodVez.com.
Speaking about the idea, Krushna said during Covid times, he realized that weak immunity was one of the biggest concerns of Indian society. “After analyzing various data, I was stunned to know how such small health concerns, which people ignore, can prove fatal in India. IMy friend Raj and I started exploring health and wellness space and got to know about various loopholes in the industry,” he said.
Pandhare and Raj had pitched the idea before incubators at IIM-Nagpur and Atal Incubation Centre, Pinnacle, at Pune. The startup was selected based on its USP that it was highly curated, added value to people’s lives, spent on marketing, and unit economics by Pune’s AIC.
“Office space has been provided to us at Pimpri Chinchwad College of Engineering’s centre of innovation and linkages. We have hired interns. I operate from my VNIT hostel. Daily schedule of four hours is spent on the start-up. We have been getting Rs1lakh revenue for the last three months,” he said.
The Rs 20 lakh funding will be utilized on taking the customer experience to next level, inventory, R&D, team strengthening and tech marketing.
Meanwhile, Mosin Shaikh, a second-year mechanical engineering student at VNIT won the first place in the prestigious EO Global Student Entrepreneur Awards - Navi Mumbai (GSEA).
Mosin, who represented his venture ‘collegestuff’ in the GSEA, a premier global competition for students, who own and operate a business, competed against student start-up founders around India and now he will be representing at India finals and Global quarter finals.