Plant-based dairy maker Goodmylk raises second seed round

Veganarke Enterprises, the parent operator of plant-based dairy alternative maker Goodmylk, has raised about $400,000 in a second seed stage investment, led by Ginni International.

Other participants in the round included angel investors Elisa Khong and Sandeep Singh, and venture capital firm VegInvest, founder Abhay Rangan told TechCircle in an emailed statement.

The latest round, which took place in December 2019, follows a $400,000 infusion from angel investor Stephen Sturdivant in January 2018. The total funds raised so far by the Bengaluru-based company amounts to about $800,000, the statement said.

Goodmylk plans to use the fresh capital to expand its distribution capabilities in its primary market Bengaluru and create new partnerships with brands and supermarkets.

The omnichannel FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) brand recently announced a collaboration with coffee chain Blue Tokai, which replaced its non-dairy alternatives of soy milk and almond milk with Goodmylk’s formula, and does not charge extra for the non-dairy options.

The company has tried to imitate cow milk’s taste as much as possible, said Rangan, adding that they currently manufacture products such as cashew-oat mylk, peanut curd, butter and mayonnaise. The products are available on the company’s website and smartphone app, Namdhari’s Fresh and BigBasket.

The team at Goodmylk, apart from its co-founders Rangan, Veena Sudarshanachar and Radhika Datt, includes head of R&D Spurti Ravi, culinary experience manager Disha Ravi, head of business development and operations Dhivakar Sathyamurthy and content manager Ryan Anthony. 

“We want to focus all our efforts on Bengaluru and make the product available ubiquitously in the city before expanding outside. We expect it to take about a year to approve the concept in the city and repeat that in other cities. Bengaluru is extremely crucial in learning how to do that,” Rangan, who co-founded the company at the age of 18, said. The company makes about 2,000 deliveries a month in Bengaluru, and has a small retail presence in Hyderabad and Chennai. 

Less than 30% of the demand stems from vegan customers, Rangan said.

“Vegans aren’t our primary market. Of course, I’m vegan, my mom (co-founder Veena Sudarshanachar) is vegan and much of our management is vegan, but typically, we want to go after a set that isn’t vegan. This is consistent from what we’ve observed in the global demand...,” Rangan told TechCircle on a phone call.