As an entrepreneur for two decades, Rakshit Mehta was looking for the next challenge in his career and wanted to create a brand legacy with ample of disruption and impact. With Covid-19, nutra/health supplements was an obvious category to consider. Seeing the adoption rate of nutraceuticals/health supplements and the fact that people in general started to pay more attention towards their health and lifestyles, made it a no brainer for foraying into the space.
Founded in 2020 by Rakshit, NanoVeda is a nutritious supplement brand from Euro Alliance S.A., Switzerland. It’s a fusion of Swiss innovation and Indian Ayurveda that combines Ayurveda with established methods and mechanisms of Nanotechnology. The brand specialises in organic and plant-based products that are availed in the form of oral rapid dissolve strips. NanoVeda focuses on a holistic approach towards health and wellbeing.
Rakshit says, “Because of my interaction with Dr Amit Srivastava from NUTRIFY India, I was convinced that there was due credit to be given to Ayurveda and to the forgotten heroes of our country who have devoted their lifetime to develop unique Ayurveda based treatments but have not been able to commercialise the same due to lack of market access, lack of capital or health policies in international markets.”
He adds, “Thus, NanoVeda was born in under 11 months; from scouting, conceptualising and commercialising – where we scouted the best of minds and scientific valour from the remotest part of India and came up with a unique solution of making daily nutrition fun, easy, trendy backed with lab tested, scientific evidence-based research methodology to commercialisation.”
Enhancing consumer’s Ayurveda experience
Diversifying into this field was as challenging as any new business venture. The most important challenges Rakshit faced were with respect to scouting the best minds in Ayurveda and assessing if their quality of work/inventions were something that he could use straightaway or whether it would require further improvements on all fronts. Another challenge was to get the right product mix and taste. Rakshit explains, “Most of the Ayurvedic products are very unpleasing in taste and format unlike NanoVeda’s innovative rapid dissolve oral strips were we put a special focus on enhancing consumer experience and have unique natural fruit flavour blends to appease any taste bud.”
NanoVeda’s ingredients are carefully crafted and sourced from some of the finest products available in the market. Example: the Ashwagandha is sourced from the world famous premium brand KSM-66, Curcumin is powdered by Ultrasol CURCUWIN (46 times more bioavailable) and so on. Quality and consumer experience are the main driving force for the company – the products are manufactured under at an FDA approved, registered and compliant cGMP facility in India to make sure global quality standards are met. Also promoting the PM’s Atma Nirbhar Bharat Initiative.
Further to enhance consumer experience and traceability, NanoVeda is also incorporating its unique/patented blockchain activated stickers that will provide end to end traceability for all its products and ingredients.
Currently, NanoVeda has 7 SKUs launched since mid November 2020. These are as follows:
- NanoVeda Ashwagandha rapid dissolve strips
- NanoVeda Curcumin rapid dissolve strips
- NanoVeda Sleep rapid dissolve strips
- NanoVeda Iron rapid dissolve strips
- NanoVeda Immune rapid dissolve strips
- NanoVeda Energy rapid dissolve strips
- NanoVeda Probiotics rapid dissolve strips.
The company is in the process of introducing 3 more SKUs by March 2021 focusing on Multivitamins, Diabetes and liver wellness.
Disrupting the nutra supplement market
Speaking about the Ayurveda supplement market in India, Rakshit shares, “Ayurveda supplementation in India has been there since generations but unfortunately has remained as a grandma’s recipe to be used or applied only when one is unwell. Moreover, Ayurveda based products are either in powder or tablet form which is not very comfortable for everyone and the products by and large, do not taste good. I wanted to change this mindset by disrupting the in-take format and taste pattern and in the process making Ayurveda supplements fun, tasty and easy for all age groups.”
Unlike, USA, where Nutra supplementation is very matured and people are open to trying out new formats and products, in India this is still a growing market at a nascent stage. “People are not very open to trying new supplements, it is still about who has recommended and who you know has benefited from the use of a certain product. However, due to Covid-19, the adoption rate for supplements in India, and globally for that matter, has skyrocketed. People have realised the importance of selfcare and preventive care rather than a postmortem care approach. This has surely helped us accelerate our growth and ride on the continued upswing path for supplementation. So, for us Covid-19 has actually been a blessing in disguise and we are glad that we were able to carve out an opportunity in this adversity,” informs Rakshit.
The company has launched its products in India (on Amazon and in the next 10 days on its e-shop: www.nanovedaindia.com), in the US (available only on Amazon.com), EU (Available through its e-shop: www.nanoveda.ch).
Further NanoVeda will be launching its products in the Middle East by the next month.
Outlining his future plans, Rakshit says, “NanoVeda’s brand vision is to create a series of sustainable and disruptive Nutra/health products in unique formats and make Nutra supplementation fun, easy, trendy yet effective. We have a very strong pipeline of products that we will launch over the next 6 to 12 months that will truly disrupt the Nutra space. Keep an eye out on our next announcements. Follow us on social media channels Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn & Twitter.”
