Forbidden Foods Pvt Ltd, which operates packaged foods brand Brb, has raised seed funding from a clutch of early-stage and angel investors.
The round in the New Delhi-based startup has been led by Globevestor, an early-stage focused venture fund and crowd-funding investment platform, and Secocha Ventures, the company said in a statement.
While Forbidden Foods did not disclose the amount raised, a report in The Economic Times said the company had raised $1 million (Rs 7.5 crore at current exchange rate).
Other participants in the seed round include First Cheque; Vijay Sivaram, chief executive of Fairfax-controlled Quess Corp; and Kashyap Deorah, the founder and CEO of live location services platform HyperTrack.
MakeMyTrip executive and MyGola co-founder Prateek Sharma, Terra.Do founder and MyGola co-founder Anshuman Bapna, and Cairn Oil and Gas director of new ventures Prachur Sah also took part in the seed funding round.
Forbidden Foods was set up in 2018.
Its co-founders include Anuj Krishan, the former chief operating officer of craft beer maker Bira 91; Abhishek Agarwal, who has worked with oilfield services company Schlumberger; Apurva Anand, who has worked with Coca-Cola and Hector Beverages; and Tanmoy Mukherjee, a co-founder of Bira 91.
“We have assembled together a highly experienced and cross-functional team to execute our vision of disrupting the packaged snacks industry in the country,” Krishan said.
He added that the company was aiming to become the go-to snacking choice for the youth consumer market.
Its first product line, BRB Popped Chips, is a low-fat and gluten-free product that it says is available in stores across Delhi and Gurugram, as well as on e-commerce, grocery delivery and vending platforms.
Forbidden Foods says its plans to include distribution of its products across the National Capital Region and other metros in the country. It will also introduce new flavours for its BRP Popped Chips line, which is currently available in four varieties.
The startup is the latest in the snacking segment to raise funding from early-stage investors. On Monday, a snack-focused cloud kitchen platform Samosa Party Foods said that it had raised funding from Inflection Point Ventures.
In May, children-focused healthy snacks brand Timios – operated by FirmRoots Pvt. Ltd – raised capital as part of its pre-Series A round of funding from investors including Rangsons Technologies LLP and Paipal Ventures LLP.
Prior to that, in March, VCCircle exclusively reported that healthy snacks maker SnackAmor had raised its angel round of funding from a clutch of local and foreign high net-worth individuals (HNIs).
