From Seed to Snack: The Rise and Success of Happilo, the Gourmet Healthy Food Brand

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When we were kids, our parents always encouraged us to have dry fruits and nuts in our diets because of their nutritional properties. Be it dried apricots, blueberries, cranberries, kiwis, almonds, walnuts, cashews, and other nuts and dry fruits. The age-old concept of consuming healthy and nutritious food items has always existed in most Indian families.

The history of dry fruits and nuts goes back to Mesopotamian times in 1500 BC. Dry fruits are considered "traditional' due to the way they are parched in the sun or heated in wind tunnel dryers. Today, dry fruits and nuts are produced and consumed in almost every part of the world.

A Bengaluru-based company, Happilo is a health food brand that offers a wide range of nuts, dried fruits, seeds, dry roasted snacks, trail mixes, and more.

In this article, you will explore the story of Happilo, including its founder, the journey of the startup, its innovative business model, notable funding rounds, and more.

Happilo - Company Highlights

Happilo - About
Happilo - Industry
Happilo - Founder
Happilo - Startup Story
Happilo - Mission and Vision
Happilo - Name, Tagline, and Logo
Happilo - Shareholding
Happilo - Business and Revenue Model
Happilo - Funding and Investors
Happilo - Growth
Happilo - Advertisements
Happilo - Partnership
Happilo - Campaign
Happilo - Competitors
Happilo - Future Plans

Happilo - About

Founded in 2016, Happilo is a gourmet healthy food brand, with its head office based in Bengaluru. It offers a variety of snacks that include nuts, berries, trail mixes, roasted and salted mixes, peanuts, corn, chickpeas, and flavorful seeds. These are among the many nutritious and tasty items available in Happilo's extensive selection of gourmet healthy food products.

Since its beginning, the company has grown its brand by offering a deluxe selection of gourmet, healthy snacking options to its customers. The business's specialty is its cutting-edge flavors combined with dry roasting technology without additional oils. Its automated manufacturing facility in Yeshwantpur (Bengaluru) enabled continuous product innovation and high production rates.

Happilo's products are available in all airport stores, online retailers like Amazon, BigBasket, Flipkart, and JioMart, and modern trade and A-class general trade stores.

Happilo - Industry

Happilo belongs to the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry and is one of the most popular FMCG brands searched for on eCommerce sites.

The global FMCG industry was valued at $11,490.9 billion in 2021. Furthermore, the industry is anticipated to reach $18,939.4 billion by 2031, with a CAGR of 5.1% from 2022 to 2031. One of the major causes of the growth of the global FMCG market is the increase in the global population, which is directly proportional to the rise in consumption of consumer goods.

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Happilo - Founder

Happilo was founded by the Indian Businessman, Vikas D Nahar in 2016.

Vikas D Nahar

Born in Bangalore, Vikas D Nahar comes from a farming family background that grew pepper and coffee. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Computer Application from Bangalore University and began his career as a Senior Import Manager (Asia) at Jain Group Pvt. Ltd. Afterward, he pursued a Master of Business Administration in Marketing from the Symbiosis Centre For Management and Human Resource Development in Pune.

Following his MBA, Vikas joined Satvikk Speciality Foods Pvt. Ltd. as the Managing Director. Satvikk Speciality Foods is a health-focused food store that opened its first branch in Bangalore in December 2011. Vikas served as its Managing Director for almost five years. His experience at Satvikk finally helped him establish Happilo, the popular gourmet healthy food brand, in 2016.

Amit Tiwary

Amit, the Chief Financial Officer at Happilo, is a Chartered Accountant by qualification. Prior to joining Happilo, he served as the CFO at Nissin Foods, where he started working as a Finance Controller (India) in 2017. Before that, he was the Manager of FP&A and Finance Business Partner at AstraZeneca and also worked as a Manager at Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages and as an Asst Manager at JSW Steel.

Happilo - Startup Story

The story of Happilo begins in 2016 when founder Vikas decided to offer a healthy way of eating snacks that people could munch on in their spare time. Like any other business, Happilo's path to success involved a lot of difficulties. Vikas had to face challenges while looking for investors at the beginning of the establishment. It is reported that he started the company with government initiatives and a mere investment of Rs.10,000.

Gradually, Vikas understood the true purpose of eating nutritious food—a wholesome snack of dried fruits and nuts. Being brought up in agricultural surroundings, Vikas decided to develop new products that would consist of dry fruits, nuts, and roasted snacks that could add some nutritional value to every individual's diet, no matter what age of life. With this, the company launched its product, 'Trail Mix', which consisted of various nuts and seeds in one packet. The product was an instant hit in the market, and since then, the company has not stopped progressing.

Happilo has raised $38.7 million (March 2023) and has a wide range of distribution network across India with over 200 channel partners.

Here is what Vikas has to say about his company, "We created Happilo with the idea of serving our consumers and ensuring that no one is deprived of nutrient-dense foods. It makes me proud how the brand has succeeded all these years and how welcoming people have been towards Happilo. Today I just have to thank everyone who has been a part of the brand and has believed in it. We wouldn’t be what we are today, without our consumers and stakeholders."

Happilo - Mission and Vision

Happilo's mission has always been to provide high-quality and healthy alternative snack items to people. Keeping up with this mission, the company has an extensive range of healthy snacks that will give its customers many options to relish.

Happilo - Name, Tagline, and Logo

From what we can see, the name of the company is essentially a mashup of the words "happiness" and "love", which is "Happilo".

Happilo's goes by the tagline, 'Delight in every bite' which defines what the company does exactly, that is, delivering premium healthy and tasty snacks to its customers.

The logo of the company can be seen having a curve underneath Happilo resembling a smile. The color green has always been associated with healthy things, which further adds meaning to the company's vision of offering healthy food items.

Happilo - Shareholding

Happilo - Business and Revenue Model

Happilo sells a specialized selection of nuts, dried fruits, organic seeds, dry-roasted snacks, trail mixes, holiday gift baskets, combos, and other such items. The company's business model is said to be Direct-to-Consumer (D2C).

The company offers all of its products at a minimum cost to attract mainly the Indian market.

Here is the list of products offered by Happilo:

• Dry Fruit Nuts - These include all the dry fruit nuts like Cashews, Almonds, Walnuts, Hazelnuts, Pistachio, Brazil Nuts, Pinenuts, Pecannut, and Macadamia Nuts.
• Seeds - Chia, Pumpkin, Flax, Basil, Sunflower, and Melon.
• Berries - Strawberries, Blueberries, Cranberries, Mulberries, and Gojiberries.
• Dried Fruits - Kiwi, Raisins, Mango, Papaya, Pineapple, Prunes, Ajneer, and Apricots.
• Dates - There are premium dates like Omani dates or Khajoor, Queen Kalmi, Ajwa, Arabian, King Medjoul, and Gloden Barhi.
• Trial Mixes -  This is one of the best-selling sections of Happilo, which includes products like Healthy mix, Berries mix, Fitness mix, Nuts & Berries mix, Roasted Party mix, Champion mix, Seeds mix, Nutty Trail mix, Super Mom's Trail mix.
• Dry Fruit Bars
• Chocolate Spreads
• Peanut Butters
• Brittles and Barfi
• Dark Chocolate and Milk Chocolate Almond Dragees

In addition, the company maximizes its business by teaming up with top online eCommerce retailers like Flipkart,  Amazon, BigBasket, JioMart, and more. About 70% of Happilo's sales come from online operations.

The company generates an average monthly revenue of Rs. 40 crores (approximately Rs 500 crore annually) by selling a variety of exotic and local nuts.

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Happilo - Funding and Investors

Happilo has raised around $38.7 million over two funding rounds. The details are:

Happilo - Growth

Few companies stand the test of time, and Happilo is one of the companies that has outdone itself. Within a few years, the company has grown to become one of the top providers of healthy snacks in India. Vikas Nahar revealed that Happilo saw tremendous growth during the pandemic time when people finally became health-conscious and understood the importance of healthy eating. By offering superior quality at lower prices, the company kept its marketing game strong. Not only the price, but the company also focused on offering different types of snacks for every age group.

Happilo also became the title sponsor of the IPL team, Rajasthan Royals. Now that the company has partnered with the IPL team, the brand's logo will be displayed on the front of the playing uniform.

Financial

Expenses Breakdown

Happilo total expenses rose from Rs 124.90 crore in FY21 to Rs 204.20 crore in FY22.

Below is the expense breakdown:

EBITDA

Happilo experienced a drop in its EBITDA margin from 8.32%  in FY21 to 5.61% in FY22 , indicating financial difficulties. The ratio of expenses to operating revenue increased, from Rs 0.89 in FY21 to Rs 1.07 in FY22. The most significant change was the ROCE, which fell from 20.61% in FY21 to -4.20% in FY22, suggesting subpar returns on capital used.

Happilo - Advertisements

When it comes to advertising, Happilo hasn't stood in the back row. The company has roped in a new celebrity couple, Sidharth Malhotra and Kiara Advani, as its new brand ambassadors. The duo has been gaining a lot of attention due to their marriage and is adored by most Indians. In the video, it can be seen that the duo is attending a party along with their bored guests. The brand mascot, Happi the bear, however, enters and immediately transforms the atmosphere by energizing the group with his Happilo dry fruits and trail mix.

Happilo - Partnership

Royal Challengers Bangalore

On March 22, 2023, Happilo announced their relationship with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) as the team's Official Snacking Partner for the Twenty-First Century. The brand's emblem will be shown on the upper-right chest of the team's official shirt, serving as snacking partners.

Happilo - Campaign

#DryFruitsKhaKeWow

Royal Challengers Banglore appeared in the advertisement from the health food company Happilo on April 25, 2023. "Healthy snacking" is the main selling point of this dried fruit and nut company with headquarters in Bengaluru. It makes perfect sense for the healthy food brand to partner with cricketers as athletes are arguably the closest thing to celebrities in the nation.

Happilo - Competitors

Some of the top competitors of Happilo are:

1. Yoga Bar
2. Nutraj
3. Nutty Gritties
4. Eat Better
5. ProV
6. Enjoy Life foods

Happilo - Future Plans

By determination and innovation, Happilo has secured its place among the top healthy snack provider brands in India. Furthermore, in the upcoming months, the company intends to expand into exclusive brand outlets (EBOs) and open about eight company-owned stores. It is also planning to go international very soon by opening stores in about 10 other countries.

Happilo - FAQs

What is Happilo known for?

Happilo is a gourmet healthy food brand. It is known for offering a variety of snacks like nuts, berries, trail mixes, roasted and salted mixes, peanuts, corn, chickpeas, and flavorful seeds.

Who is the owner of Happilo?

Vikas D Nahar is the founder and CEO of Happilo.

Is Happilo an Indian brand?

Yes, Happilo is an Indian brand founded in 2016 and has its headquarters in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.

Who are Happilo's competitors?

Some of the top competitors of Happilo are Yoga Bar, Nutraj, Nutty Gritties, Eat Better, ProV, and Enjoy Life foods.