Former marketing head of Coca-Cola India, Shripad Nadkarni, plans to set up food startup Fingerlix that will sell ready to cook foods such as curries, batter and mixes. He has teamed up with three former executives of major consumer goods firms.
Nadkarni, who is now the director at Maverix Platforms, the promoter of Fingerlix, said, “The ready-to-cook sector is a white space we’re hoping to address; we are addressing convenience and freshness with the brand.”
With an investment of $1.3 million (about Rs 8.7 crore), Maverix has already brought on board brand consultant Santosh Desai as an investor along with a couple of others. The other co-founders include Shree Bharambe, who was formerly with Johnson & Johnson, Abhijit Berde, who was a former executive at hospitality firm Gate Gourmet, and Varun Khanna who was with Colgate earlier.
Currently, Fingerlix’s cuisine would consist of a mix of Indian and Italian food with a shelf life of five days and it would be sold across modern and general trade and hyper-local deliveries, said Nandkarni. The brand is being retailed in Big Bazaar, Reliance Retail and Hypercity stores in Mumbai to begin with.
Nadkarni had started marketing consulting firm MarketGate after he quit Coca-Cola in 2005.He then sold the company to Publicis Groupe about four years ago.
The overall packaged foods market in the country is estimated at $48 billion, while the ‘centre of plate’ which includes meat, bread, dairy, staples and fruit and vegetables, is pegged at $200 billion, according to industry estimates.
