Creating a chocolate treat you don't have to feel guilt about eating - Pranav Sharma, AWSUM

With demo day on the horizon, the Food Innovation cohort has been preparing for the final stages of the program. October 13th is coming fast so the SBC team decided to head down to Tasmania to check in with their FoodTech entrepreneurs.

Pranav Sharma, is a self-motivated entrepreneur who has co-founded his own start-up, Awsum. Awsum is India’s first functional chocolate brand that uses Ayurveda inspired ingredients to strengthen human health. The wisdom of Ayurveda medicine comes from 5,000 years old ancient Indian medical science. Combining this practice with premium dark chocolate, Awsum has launched products that not only taste delicious but also have enriching health benefits.

Awsum’s range of chocolates are designed to strengthen focus, to help sleep schedules, and to alleviate stress. Additionally, the herbs and nutrients found in their chocolate bars can help bodies build up immunity to diseases or deal with lifestyle health disorders.

After 6 months, Awsum has gone from selling 50 bars to 100,000 bars. They’ve reached out to e-commerce platforms and larger retailers to get their products on the shelfs and have connected with over 5,000 consumers to hear their thoughts about their innovative chocolate products as well.

With all this success, what has the 3 month period with SBC done to accelerate the growth?

The biggest takeaway Pranav and his team has taken away from their time with SBC, has been perspective. He’s found this experience to be helpful in creating direction. It has shown him how to strategically network with his SBC mentors and has given him educational business knowledge for his company. After his time here, he now knows what steps to confidently take next, in order to grow his influence in the chocolate industry.

Demo Day at SBC will be a pivotal moment for the Awsum team. They are hoping to receive more funds so they could potentially move from India to offshore markets like Australia. They’re ready to start setting up production sites in the upcoming months to produce even more Ayurvedic chocolate.

Interested in seeing Pranav pitch his novel chocolates - Register now to watch Demo Day online here: https://www.startupbootcamp.com.au/demo-day/fi22