Brands
Discover
Events
Newsletter
More
The Captable
SMB Story
HerStory
Social Story
Enterprise Story
The Decrypting Story
YS life
YS Hindi
YS Tamil
YSTV
Daily Newsletter
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Sign In
Founder first
Just In
Brands
Resources
YSTV
Events
Newsletter
Stories
Brands
Resources
Stories
General
In-Depth
Announcement
Reports
News
Funding
Startup Sectors
Women in tech
Sportstech
Agritech
E-Commerce
Education
Lifestyle
Entertainment
Art & Culture
Travel & Leisure
Curtain Raiser
Wine and Food
YSTV
The CapTable
HerStory
Social Story
Enterprise Story
The Decrypting Story
YS Life
YS Hindi
YS Tamil
practo
microsoft
ola
swiggy
zomato
uber
delhivery
amazon
cred
nykaa
Glossary
Everything AI
How-to’s
knowledge base
Opinion
Unicorns of India
DevSparks Pune
SheSparks
List Your Startup
Startup Spotlight
Pitch To Us
Browse Startups
Start your day with impactful startup stories and concise news! All delivered in a quick five-minute read in your inbox.
Subscribe
I hereby consent to the processing of the personal data that I have provided and declare my agreement with the data protection regulations in the privacy policy on the website.
Brands
Topics
Resource Hub
Upcoming Events
Discover
Saturday February 26, 2022 , 5 min Read
For 25 years, Archna Soni dedicated her life to her family and raising her children. An avid follower of Ayurveda, spirituality, and a healthy lifestyle, she spent experimenting with different blends of superfoods and herbs for her family and friends.
Archna Soni with team members
Born and raised in Delhi, Archna has a BA in Mathematics and recalls helping her father in his restaurant business. She moved to Panipat after she got married to her doctor husband.
“My incentive was to provide my family with the best nutrition possible and keep them healthy. My kids were choosy, and I was aware that the health benefits should not compromise on taste, otherwise they would reject them. This made me craft a range of superfood mixes that were easy to incorporate into a daily diet, were healthy, and tasted good as well,” Archna says.
For three years, Archana made these products specifically for friends and family, free of cost.
“When people came back asking for more and more each month, my son, Dr Ujjwal, saw it as an opportunity and suggested I take these products to the world in a proper way. I was more than ready, waiting for this opportunity my entire life, and with his support, I finally got my first entrepreneurial break,” she says.
She registered the business as Archna Foods in 2020, and clocked sales close to Rs 1.5 lakh in the first two months itself without any marketing strategy.
The initial strategy was to keep overheads very lean. The founders understood that the journey was going to be tough and to sustain for longer periods, capital preservation was important.
Archna explains, “We didn’t have an established manufacturing setup initially, so we converted our drawing-room and balcony into a manufacturing space. We didn’t have commercial grinding machines, hence used the smaller home mixer and grinders. My son and I were the makers, packers, customer support representatives, social media managers, performance marketers of .”
As Ashvatha began to gain popularity, the founders decided to employ women from the marginalised sections of the society and training them so that they could be financially independent. Currently, they work with four women in manufacturing apart from an all-women team that offers customer support and marketing.
With Ashvatha, the founders’ mission is to provide pure, natural, and authentic India superfoods based on age-old Ayurvedic wisdom.
The raw ingredients are sourced directly from the farmers in Kerala and Meghalaya. The raw spices and herbs are processed in its facility in Panipat, Haryana, by the women employees. The products are formulated according to their own recipes.
Currently, Ashvatha offers five products in its range that include Ashvatha Milk Booster, Ashvatha Chai Masala, Ashvatha Turmeric Latte, Ashvatha Detox Kadha, and Ashvatha Herbal Subji Masala.
Her son, Dr Ujjwal Soni, takes care of the sales, marketing, and technical aspects of the company while she looks after manufacturing and R&D.
Ashvatha’s target audience is millennials in the age group of 22-40.
“There has been a dramatic consumer shift towards healthy and conscious eating habits after the pandemic. We offer them healthier alternatives as well as other products for holistic health,” Archna says.
As a D2C brand, Ashvatha products are available on its own ecommerce store as well as listed on all major marketplaces like Amazon Launchpad, Flipkart, Bigbasket, DrinksDeli, OneGreen, etc.
Archna points out that there are very few established brands in this space.
The founders bootstrapped this company with Rs 5 lakh to set up Ashvatha’s ecommerce store and manufacturing unit. It started operations in April last year, and closed around Rs 30 lakh in revenue in December 2021. This year the company is hoping to clock Rs 80 lakh in revenue.
Initial challenges the founders faced include scaling up ads and operations which was very difficult without a proper team and cash flow.
“We had to re-evaluate everything and take small baby steps to slowly add in more people in the team. The biggest success for us was when people took time to personally text/email us their reviews telling us how much they appreciated the quality of our products. These helped us keep going even during our lows,” she says.
Going forward, the founders plan to increase Ashvatha’s presence on more offline and online channels.
“We are in touch with investors trying to raise funds for a much quicker growth. Also, we have several other products in development for holistic wellness,” she adds.
Edited by Megha Reddy
1
2
This startup uses GenAI to help users fine-tune English speaking skills
3
The 18-day life reset: Simple habits for lasting change
4
Using AI for English lessons; Filmmakers reclaiming Dalit narratives
5
Infibeam Avenues net profit soars 2.7X YoY to Rs 70 Cr in Q1 FY25
source