Mumbai-based food and beverage brand Good Fettle specialized in low-calorie ice-cream products and raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Agility Ventures. The company pioneered the concept of low-calorie ice cream in India in April 2019.
The Agility Ventures network, which is known to invest in startups or early-stage businesses in industries such as education, technology, healthcare, e-commerce, automobiles, electric vehicles, robotics, agri-tech and manufacturing, has seen record numbers of angel investors join the network last year.
It is a global network spread across 25 chapters in India, Canada, UAE, Australia and the UK. With a legal entity registered in America, they set up a UAE-based team in February.
Dhianu Das, co-founder, Agility Ventures, said, “We are not only ambitious about deploying INR 75 crore this year through Agility Ventures angel fund and investing it in over 50 startups, but also diversifying into different portfolios. Good Fettle is just the kind of product we are looking for – it is a first of its kind in India.”
Lack of guilt-free post-meal dessert prompted these cousins to startup
A brainchild of cousin-duo, Akhil Gupta and Ayush Gupta to satiate their weakness for something sweet and healthy, Good Fettle taps into the increasing health awareness trend of low-calorie ice creams, the craze for which is huge abroad.
Good Fettle came into existence in 2018 when they found a considerable gap in the market for guilt-free post-meal sweet cravings and provided zero snacking products in India that were holistically healthy and easily accessible.
These prompted the founders to start their entrepreneurial journey by ordering an ice cream maker and learning to make regular ice creams on YouTube. They then hired a consultant who introduced them to a commercial facility to run trials on a larger scale.
After eight months of R&D and a few blasts in the kitchen, they cracked the perfect product and launched Good Fettle in April 2019 to become the country’s first low-calorie ice cream brand.
Each 125ml scoop of this ice cream consists of about 65-75 calories vis-à-vis traditional ice creams, which are about 200 calories per scoop. It does not compromise on taste and is an excellent source of fiber and protein.
The brand is considered one of Asia’s first low-calorie ice creams due to the presence of 70 calories per scoop, and it is 100 percent gluten-free and rich in prebiotic fibers.
Customer-centric approach behind the growth
The company stays connected with its consumers regularly to understand their feedback and develop new products.
“We figured that consumers love our products, but they also wanted to control their portion sizes. So in May 2021, we developed the concept of Good Fettle Minis, which are no-added-sugar crunchy bite-sized ice creams available in 6 different flavors,” said Akhil, head of marketing.
“The concept became a big hit. Based on the same philosophy, we have continued our journey of innovation and are rolling out another exciting category, i.e., Mini Cones, less than 70 calories per piece and just 1 gram of sugar,” added Akhil.
The brand follows an omnichannel distribution strategy, selling across Mumbai, Pune and Bengaluru through their website, aggregators such as Swiggy and Zomato and about 100 premium grocery stores, besides also having a kiosk in Mumbai.
The emergence of global low-calorie or healthy ice cream brands has been triggered off due to people leading wholesome cleaner lifestyles.
Currently, China leads the ice cream industry globally, followed by the US. The organized Indian ice cream industry is pegged at USD 1.5 billion, making it the 5th largest and fastest-growing market globally with a Y-O-Y growth of 13 percent.
“We have a great number of loyal customers and have a high repeat rate. Our plan for the future is not just to become a strong national ice cream brand but also to expand into more ambient categories in the future with more focus on the D2C channel while keeping the same ideologies intact,” said Ayush, head of production, logistics and operations in Good Fettle.
