Mumbai-based pet food startup LUVIN recently raised $300,000 in an angel round from eminent angel investors to expand its portfolio of pet foods and treats, strengthen marketing efforts, and step up its presence pan-India.
The round was led by eminent angel investors, including MV Nair (Chairman CIBIL & SWIFT, ex-Chairman- Indian Banker’s Association), Tanvir Ahmed (Business Head, Food Ingredients, Food Specialities Ltd, Dubai), Possible Ventures (a Gujarat-based family office), Siddharth Khemka (Head Equity Research at Motilal Oswal), Uday Shetty (veteran advertisement professional), Mitesh Sorathiya (Managing Director, Evercon), Goutam Sanyal (Corporate Advisor and veteran banker), Viral Lodhiya (Managing Director, Sovereign Metals), and Bhavesh Savaliya, second-generation entrepreneur into silver merchandising and a serial angel investor.
Incorporated in 2020 by Food Technologist and IIM-Ahmedabad graduate Ipshit Bhattacharya, The startup said it has launched 12 products in the D2C Pet food space, 3 of which get manufactured in Europe and the rest are formulated and manufactured in-house, including India’s first Instant Soup powder for dogs.
“I started my career as a project engineer setting-up manufacturing plants of human foods abroad. So, Food & Nutrition had always been areas of interest. Over the years, my attachment to my pets led me to learn more and more about their needs,” said Ipshit.
“Inflection point came when while advising a client on cattle feed, I started looking deeper in the pet food industry landscape and realised it is standing at a inflexion point. Demand is increasing, format of serving nutrition needs an overhaul, there is high dependence on imports and product-first disruption-oriented companies are far & few with clear white spaces in the customer value-proposition. Passion morphed into aspiration and a journey thus started.”
“We are elated that our efforts have been thus far recognised well by Customers, channel partners & platforms. Few months back, Better India mentioned us amongst top-10 Natural & Healthy brands in the industry. We are fortunate to secure support from such eminent investors who believe in our vision equally and are willing to walk the miles with us. This will help catapult our efforts to reach our customers and serve them better,” Ipshit added.
Source @Indianstartupnews
