This Bengaluru Based Nutraceutical Startup Works in Synergy With Hospitals to Make Food for Patients Nutritious and Delectable

We are publishing an interview of Mr. Vijaysurya, Founder & CEO, NutriParadise Foods.

About the founders

Founder, CEO- Vijaysurya – After obtaining a master’s degree in global entrepreneurship and gaining a wide experience of 15 years as an entrepreneur, I decided to complete my extensive research on medicinal plant, nutraceuticals and functional foods. The idea of fulfilling the dietary needs of the human body during specific illnesses in a more convenient & affordable way inspires me to move ahead and make our products available to every patient.

Co-founder- Kushal Srinivas – Matching the ideologies of Nutriparadise our co-founder- Kushal, comes from the biotechnology background. His passion for Nutraceuticals products and medical plants pushed him to work with the Biotechnology Center where he managed the production of medicinal plants and bio fertilizers. With Kushal’s knowledge and experience it proved us to be very helpful when we started working on Nutriparadise . He has been working alongside me from the day one and helped me add more value to our service.

What is the problem you are trying to solve? Can you share with us any insights that led you to believe that this is a big enough problem?
Today, the issue hospitals face is that medicines don’t work to full effectiveness, when the eating regimen isn’t right. Functional foods help hospitals to quicken patient recuperation and lessen the requirement for medication. Our exploration showed that 97% of the hospitals are not concentrating on providing therapeutic food. In many hospitals, dietary objectives are met through supplements. In few hospitals, therapeutic diet is recommended to the patients to take post their hospital stay while the food service from the diet pantry is done according to hospitals’ feasibility i.e., one general meal is prepared and is made disease specific by making slight alterations.

NutriParadise is the first and one of its kind organizations that caters to functional food insufficiencies affecting patients in the hospitals. NutriParadise has come up with the products on which an extensive R&D has been done to consolidate different natural ingredients and the privilege blends, outlining food products as integral to medicines.

NutriParadise aims at changing the structure of the diet pantries and cafeterias at hospitals by providing convenient therapeutic foods at affordable price without compromising the quality. The products formulated are having all the essential nutrients which are required by the patients depending on their disease conditions without subjecting them to nutrient deprivation.

What is the uniqueness about your Start-up?
Currently, in India, we are the only company to have come up with convenient-functional- therapeutic products and catering exclusively to hospitals. We formulate foods for specific disease conditions to help reduce the recovery time for patients. We practice food synergy and pair ingredients to enhance their beneficial effect on the body. Our products are completely natural, free of additives and chemicals. At NutriParadise, products are engineered to enhance the bioavailability of all the nutrients and to help in the treatment. Human and animal trials have been carried out on the products to ensure their efficiency and long-term benefits.

What is the revenue model? What is the logic behind it? What is the model you are following – Free / Freemium / Premium etc.? Explain your thought process. 
Our revenue model is through product sales. Presently we are keeping products pricing affordable and economic for consumers. We calculated our breakeven for the long-term and on the sales of bulk quantities.Our model enables us to do extend through physical and direct dissemination channel from the makers to specifically reach to the end clients. This B2B penetration will empower us to develop and reach speedier to the end clients, and furthermore extend our present product offerings. Our current revenue is around INR 20 million and we are expecting 200% growth annually with an average ticket size of INR 100 per patient per day. Presently we have been funded with 1 million USD and are in talks for series funding for further expansion.

Who are the consumers that you are targeting? How is this going to affect them?
We are targeting patients who are hospitalized channelled through pantries and canteens. Our products will help them by supporting their treatment and recover faster. We need to grow the extent of functional therapeutic foods, ensuring the correct blending to guarantee effectiveness. Food safety is of prime concern with regards to food service. Besides, foodservice quality is known to impact patients’ fulfilment. Proper foodservice and nutritional care in hospitals is beneficial for recovery.

What is the big picture of your start up? Will it lead to something bigger? If so, how? 
In spite of the fact that there are various health products in the market, products made solely from natural ingredients which are disease particular and chemical free are constrained.Our vision is to make patients’ lives easier and better naturally. We want to help them enjoy their food while keeping it therapeutic and healthy.

What is the success story of your start up in your own words? 
Being brought up in the neighbourhood of horticulture and biotechnology, I developed an interest in medicinal plants and grew up studying them. When I was pursuing my masters in entrepreneurship in Germany at HeimererSchulen, I did my internship in a hospital. My project was to understand the dietary needs and problems of the patients and dietary services in Indian hospitals. I observed that in abroad people are aware of what they are eating and prudent about their diet. They know how to read the food labels. While in India people are unaware of what they are being served with as food or why they are being served with that particular food at hospitals. They are not educated about their diets and healthy eating habits. Doctors abroad emphasize on a good diet for a fast recovery while in India medicines rule over food. That’s when I understood that there is a huge gap to be solved. I then came up with a convenient solution, presented it in the college competition and received the seed funding the very same day. So basically this company was a business model I developed as a college project.

It was after this competition that I started researching while still pursuing my masters and got on with it on the very next day of my graduation. I went to the depth of the issue, researched for 3 years on nutraceuticals and functional foods. I looked into the national and international market along with experts and masters and developed a complete business model. I started this company with an emotional intention. I visited hospitals to understand patients’ mindset and interact with them regarding their diet and their dietary requirements. In my life, I faced and spotted a lot of problems in the society but never gave them a thought to solve them. But in case of patients, I just couldn’t let it go. I was determined to address their problems. I took baby steps by supplying freshly prepared nutritious food to the hospitals. It was not easy in the beginning and we had to face a lot of hurdles which sometimes frustrated me and made me feel like quitting. But when we overcame those difficulties, we celebrated small successes and patients’ satisfaction built our spirit back up. When we catered to 1.2 lac patients who were very happy with our food and its value, it inspired us to research further to provide them functional foods with better health benefits. Then with a lot of innovation and further research that in 2018 we are launching our convenient, completely natural Ready to Cook/ Eat/ Serve therapeutic products which have been pre-ordered by the hospitals.

We are currently launching products for pregnant women, diabetes, and general patients which will address their particular conditions and cater to their requirements. We are also working on therapeutic products for other disease conditions like chronic kidney disorder, gastrointestinal disorders, and cancer which will be launched eventually.

Please write about the challenges that you or your startup faced and how you overcome them to achieve success. Make sure it should inspire others.
It turns into a test for a business person in this industry to make mindfulness among the purchasers about his products, to acquaint it with the market and achieve general society in the correct way. While educating consumers it ought to likewise be taken care that they are not mistaken for information pouring in from different sources. It is essential to make the correct attitude keeping in mind the end goal to influence the consumers to acknowledge the products. It is compulsory for a business person to edify his consumers and motivate them to settle on suitable food choices in the event that he wishes to get by in the market.We are matching 3D’s-Disease-Drug-Diet of the hospital for the advantage of the patients.The majority of our products are totally natural and free of added substances.It is obvious that functional food industry requires tremendous speculation and abundant time to come to pass with a unique functional food products range.

We expect to change the face and impression of hospital cafeteria and pantries making the services helpful and furnishing nutritious food with more prominent esteem and advantages. We intend to cure and forestall ailments to a more prominent degree by giving best quality nutraceuticals and functional foods as therapeutic diets.The entire thought of framing NutriParadise was to have any kind of effect in the current customary procedures and techniques took after. Our means to give consumers with products that convey great wellbeing with the utilization of 100% natural ingredients are one of its kind.At NutriParadise therapeutic food products are planned by utilizing phytonutrients and functional components which have the property of helping in easing the diseases and their administration.

Any other information about your startup that you would like to share with us.
NutriParadise is taking a shot at molecular nutrition where it can be utilized to enable patients to address their conditions from the root and to perhaps recoup from them quickly and for all time. Research is being led on nutraceuticals compounds which target destructive metabolites definitely created in the body which generally may harm genetic material. Whenever effective, it may really help in curing cancer and avoid its recurrence. NutriParadise is staying aware of the lightning rate of innovation and pattern by exploring the foods for prenatal and postnatal conditions to keep away from the hereditary predisposal of children to non-transmittable diseases and food hypersensitivities. With such progression, it is no misrepresentation to state that a day will come when the vast majority of the medications on the counter will be supplanted by nutraceuticals and healthy nourishments with better potential to check and cure ailments.

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Thanks Vijaysurya. Best of luck!