Post-pandemic, more consumers are paying attention to healthy eating and supermarket shelves now have an even wider array of options for nutritious snacks. However, healthy snacks are often more expensive, which causes consumers to buy other ready-to-eat snacks loaded with high levels of energy, sodium, sugar, and saturated fat.
To address this problem, IIT alums Akash Sharma and Abhishek Agarwal established Farmley (TechnifyBiz) in 2017. The Delhi-based direct-to-consumer (D2C) brand specialises in unadulterated dry fruits and nuts in line with the trend towards natural, organic, and low-calorie snacking.
According to Akash Sharma, Co-founder and CEO of Farmley, two meals are a thing of the past and consumers now eat around 7-8 meals a day.
“This is evident in regions such as Singapore where the average person consumes around eight meals a day, with a majority of these meals being snacks. This shift in consumer behaviour is driving the demand for more wholesome and healthier snacking options,” he tells YourStory.
The startup sources its products directly from farms and over the past five years, it has invested in building deep back-end linkages with the various farms.
Farmley's initial focus was on business-to-business (B2B) wholesale, supplying to traditional wholesalers based in mandis and private retailers, who would package the products under their labels.
Three years later, it pivoted to a D2C model to reach the end customers directly.
“We realised that we needed to spread awareness about the category, innovate with the ingredients and curate novel products. We........