![]() This potential has caught the attention of investors, who are increasingly willing to back homegrown companies. However, there is no precedent there for sugar-free, low-calorie, or vegan ice creams since it is a new category, in which indigenous brands dominate. Market research firm IMARC Group estimates that India's ice cream market, which reached Rs 194.1 billion in 2022, is expected to touch Rs 508.4 billion by 2028, growing at 17.5 per cent CAGR during 2023-2028. ![]() ![]() NOTO's revenues stood at Rs 8 crore in FY 2021-22, which shot up to Rs 25 crore in FY 22-2023 Before this, it had raised Rs 4 crores from investors like Titan Capital, Rockstud Capital, Venture Catalysts, Bollywood actor John Abraham, WEH Ventures, and other angel investors. In March this year, NOTO raised $2 million in pre-Series A funding led by White Whale Ventures and Rainmatter. We will not be able to beat them in price battles, but the real opportunity lies in offering better value-for-money products," he added. "We don't necessarily want to compete with the mass ice cream brands because we are targeting the health-conscious 100 million customers and not the entire 1.4 billion population in the country. Sheth is unperturbed by the imminent entry of Reliance Consumer Products into the fray with its Independence ice cream brand. The brand's annual run rate stands at Rs 50 crore, and it hopes to double this by next summer, the peak season for ice cream companies. "We wish to go deeper within geographies where we have gained ground, make better use of our resources, improve manufacturing efficiencies as well as reduce our dependency on discounts and advertising to increase customer retention," Sheth noted. NOTO has already managed to rake in Rs 55 crore in the current fiscal and is on track to becoming profitable in another 12 months at this scale. Sheth revealed that the company's revenues stood at Rs 8 crore in FY 21-2022, which shot up to Rs 25 crore in FY 22-2023. Another reason that egged him to pursue this enterprise was the absence of more prominent players like Amul, Havmor, Kwality Walls, and Vadilal in the low-calorie ice cream domain, which would help him get the first-mover advantage. "We started NOTO in 2019 after observing the general movement towards fitness and wellness," he stated. That was his Eureka moment, when Sheth realised he could use his culinary knowledge to whip up indulgent frozen desserts to suit the tastebuds of customers in India, a country that accounts for 17 per cent of the world's diabetes patients and which is seeing a rapid prevalence in obesity, especially among the younger generation. While Sheth's refrigerator would always have Halo Top because he loved its packaging and flavour profiles, he soon learned that the brand did a whopping $347.3 million in sales in 2017 by positioning itself as low-calorie ice cream targeting health-conscious customers. ![]() While pursuing his education at New York's Culinary Institute of America, he came across Wells Enterprises' Halo Top low-calorie and high-protein ice cream that tasted delightful and had much fewer calories per pint than other indulgent brands like Ben & Jerry's and Haagen-Dazs. His subsequent weight loss journey often saw him seeking healthy dessert alternatives that satisfied his sweet cravings while letting him remain within the health macros he needed to be in. Mumbai-based Varun Sheth loved digging into ice cream during his teens but hated the guilt trip that followed.
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