Co-founded by Prithvi Kini and Jashid Hameed in Bengaluru, Nuvedo — featured on Shark Tank India — presents DIY mushroom kits for straightforward chemical-free mushroom cultivation at dwelling, together with different value-based merchandise.
Not too long ago featured on Shark Tank India Season 3, Bengaluru-based startup Nuvedo has earned a highlight with its one-of-a-kind Mushroom DIY kits, which allow people to develop chemical-free mushrooms effortlessly within the consolation of their houses.
Designed for mushroom fanatics, mushroom shoppers, and even youngsters, this mushroom rising equipment permits anybody to reap mushrooms from the field, straight to their plate.
The straightforward DIY equipment permits you to domesticate unique mushrooms — together with pink oyster mushrooms, Indian high-protein oyster mushrooms, king tuber oyster mushrooms, gray oyster mushrooms, and elm oyster mushrooms — in simply 10 days.
By making mushroom cultivation simple, the startup’s fundamental goal is to reinforce folks’s understanding of fungi and produce the therapeutic advantages of mushrooms to each Indian family.
The straightforward DIY equipment permits you to domesticate unique mushrooms in 10 days.
We sat down with the co-founders Prithvi Kini (30) and Jashid Hameed (32) to be taught extra in regards to the DIY kits and their obsession with mushrooms that took them to Shark Tank.
The shared fondness for mushrooms
In 2014, after finishing her increased research in philosophy at Delhi’s Woman Shri Ram School For Ladies, Prithvi labored with Bengaluru-based startups specializing in science and know-how. Whereas Jashid graduated from BITS Pilani after which pursued his grasp’s from IIM Indore in 2017. He labored with Aditya Birla Trend and Retail Ltd as space operations supervisor.
A turning level got here of their lives after they met one another on an internet courting utility. As their love story advanced, they found their life targets within the meals business.
It was amid the COVID-19 pandemic that the couple found the advantages of mushroom-based extracts and began sourcing wellness merchandise from america.
“Mushrooms primarily assist in stress reduction, psychological well-being, intestine well being, nervousness, cardiovascular well being, and athletic efficiency. After experiencing their well being advantages, we began in search of options or Indian manufacturers that have been making mushroom-based dietary supplements. Sadly, we couldn’t discover any such model,” Jashid tells The Higher India.
Aside from the mushroom rising kits, the startup presents a number of value-added merchandise for general well-being.
“We wished to construct a model to bridge this hole. However once we began, we discovered that there weren’t sufficient folks rising it. Then the query got here, how will we domesticate these? We realised that we now have to start out from scratch, make our personal spawn to make extracts and finally the wellness merchandise,” he provides.
In 2020, Jashid undertook coaching on the Indian Institute of Horticulture Analysis (IIHR) in Bengaluru to grasp the nitty-gritty of cultivating mushrooms. After a 12 months of analysis and improvement, the couple formally launched their firm Nuvedo in 2021 by exhausting their collective financial savings of Rs 30 lakh.
How does the DIY equipment work
When the couple began researching the sector, they discovered a lack of information in regards to the cultivation of mushrooms. “Folks have misconceptions surrounding mushrooms as a result of they’re seen rising in agricultural waste and unhygienic circumstances,” Prithvi tells The Higher India.
It turned important for them to give you an answer that allowed folks to be educated on mushroom cultivation. Their quest led them to design a DIY mushroom equipment.
Jashid shares, “We wished to construct a group of mushroom fanatics through the use of these rising kits as a result of we felt that straight launching mushroom dietary supplements in a market that doesn’t know something about mushrooms would have been onerous to focus on. So, when folks themselves nurture and devour mushrooms, they’ll perceive its significance.”
The equipment which is about arm’s size, includes a cardboard bag containing ragi straw, which has mushroom mycelium rising on it. It serves because the rising medium of the mushroom fungi. Together with this, the equipment additionally incorporates a small spray bottle.
Explaining how the equipment works, Prithvi says, “You fill the water bottle with consuming water and spray the bag thrice a day. This may present a moist and humid ambiance to activate the myceliated substrate. In about 10 days, you’ll get your first harvest of natural mushrooms. With this, you’ll be able to harvest a complete of 500 grams of mushroom in two to a few harvests from one equipment.”
“They’re fully sustainable as they develop on agricultural waste. It doesn’t require daylight and anyone can develop them,” she provides.
The crew of Bengaluru-based Nuvedo startup.
Final 12 months, Nithin George purchased their pink oyster develop equipment and says that he continues to be fascinated with it. “Coming from a non-agricultural background, I had no concept in regards to the world of mushrooms. After I attended a workshop by Nuvedo, I obtained to find out about how mushrooms are helpful to our well being and well-being,” he tells The Higher India.
“This sparked my curiosity and I attempted rising them at dwelling. And the cultivation course of was probably the most lovely sight. My household saved gazing these lovely produce and later plucked them for consumption. Their equipment is only a well-crafted gateway into this huge mystical world of mycophiles,” he provides.
Priced at Rs 699, the couple has bought these kits to no less than 20,000 prospects throughout the nation and has discovered main demand in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kochi, and Pune.
The Shark Tank expertise
On 7 February, 2024, the couple made it to the centre stage of Shark Tank India Season 3. Though they didn’t bag a deal, Jashid says, “We weren’t capable of get a deal as sharks wished to grasp the market development first. They themselves have been probably not conscious of mushrooms as a result of we needed to begin the pitch by explaining that mushrooms should not crops, they’re fungi.”
“However I feel we have been considerably profitable in having the ability to break some myths round mushrooms and spotlight the therapeutic advantages and properties of our merchandise,” provides Prithvi.
Anyway, our main audience, Jashid says, have been individuals who have some fascination for mushrooms and are open to rising them of their home for consumption.
That mentioned, the couple believes their lives have been “mushrooming” because the launch of the corporate that right this moment clocks an annual income of Rs 50 lakh.
“Over these years, we now have visited a number of farmers and locations to grasp the biodiversity that our nation has to supply. With these mushrooms, we’re therapeutic our personal selves each day. I don’t assume every other company job would have given each of us the alternatives and the fulfilment that has come via this house,” smiles Prithvi.
