Launched in 2016, children’s millet-based food brand Slurrp Farm has been a pioneer in bringing back the supergrain millet to the centre of plates across India and more recently, the UAE.
Wholsum Foods, the parent company of Slurrp Farm has recently raised $7 million in a fresh round of funding led by Investment Corporation of Dubai, the sovereign wealth fund of the Government of Dubai, and existing investor Fireside Ventures, a multi-stage venture fund in India. The fundraise comes a year after Fireside Ventures’ initial investment of $2 million.
The funds will be deployed towards product innovation, marketing as well as increasing global footprint. As millets, along with plant proteins such as lentils, legumes and chickpeas make up a large proportion of product R&D at Wholsum Foods, the new initiatives will help improve smallholder value chains and provide demand impetus for the grains.
Speaking about the funding, Meghana Narayan and Shauravi Malik, co-founders and co-CEOs of Wholsum Foods Pvt Ltd said, “We have a deep-rooted conviction to bringing millets back to the meals we eat and making them incredibly delicious! They are an inalienable part of our food history. The recent focus of the Union Budget on millets and 2023 being the UN-designated Year of Millets strengthens our commitment to lead the conversation on these supergrains. We are growing steadily and currently clocking in over AED 25 million of revenue run rate, with an aim to reach AED 250 million in revenue by 2025. The funds raised will enable us to build a global FMCG brand and take millets to the world!”
Slurrp Farm has also raised $1 million from over 20 angel investors including well-known investors such as Rakesh Kapoor (former CEO of Reckitt Benckiser), Sanjeev Bikhchandani (Founder and Executive Vice Chairman, Info Edge), Ashish Dhawan (Founder & CEO, Central Square Foundation), Aditya Ghosh (board member of Akasa, Fab India, and OYO), Yasemin Lamy (Deputy CIO of impact investment group CDC), and Samrath Bedi (Executive Director, Forest Essentials), amongst others.
