Growing up, Ayurveda was part of the very air around Ameve Sharma: after all, his grandfather founded the ayurvedic pharmaceutical company Baidyanath a century ago. “I have taken antibiotics only twice in my life,” he says. “My father had high blood pressure and took only ayurvedic medicines. I have seen how effective Ayurveda is if followed properly.”
As in many Indian families, Mr. Sharma, who is now 30, joined the family business and spent five years there. He then went off to do a business management degree from INSEAD, but instead of returning to the fold, he took a consultant’s job at McKinsey. Along the way, he met Shrey Badhani, 29, who had spent his childhood and youth living all over the country, got a degree in Economics, then went to graduate school at Cambridge before working for a few years with consultancy firm Bain & Co.
Last year, the two founded their own company, Kapiva Ayurveda. The name comes from the initials, in Sanskrit, of the three doshas (energies), kapha (water), pitta (fire) and vatta (wind), which Ayurveda practitioners believe that every person has in their bodies, but need to be balanced for good health. Their aim is to give the traditional a modern twist. But why start a new company when they could well have leveraged the Baidyanath brand equity to do things in new ways? They wanted to price themselves in the premium range and cater to a different target audience, the partners say. Besides, they felt Kapiva would be easier on the tongue for people around the world.
Mumbai 08-11-2017 :Profile Shoot of Shrey Bhadani of Kapiva Ayurveda at Breachcandy. Photo : Rajneesh Londhe
“There are a lot of entities trying to modernise Ayurveda,” Mr. Sharma says, “but they are doing that with soaps and shampoos. Very few are doing it as a healthcare system.” He feels Ayurveda would be taken more seriously by changing perceptions. “Ayurveda is a very effective marketing tool,” Mr. Badhani says. “We want to use it as a product tool. When you stay true to the essence of Ayurveda at the product level, you get fantastic outcomes.”
But first, they must make a dent in the market. Not easy, with the proliferation of products claiming herbal or traditional virtues, and with not just FMCG majors like HUL and Dabur involved, but high-profile new entrants like Patanjali jumping in too.
Mr. Sharma claims a quality advantage due the company’s association with Baidyanath. He doesn’t mean his lineage: there is a formal agreement signed with a group firm, Goodcare Pharma, for product development, R&D, testing and manufacturing.
Then there are the ingredients. “Procurement of herbs is an art,” Mr. Sharma says. “Because of the 100-year heritage of Baidyanath, we are able to do it. Quality is the key.” There are wild herbs, which aren’t cultivated and can only be collected from forests, within prescribed limits, with a government licence; here too, the company benefits because of tie-ups with licence-holders who have lifelong relationships with Baidyanath.
Kapiva also hopes to gain an advantage by guiding users in dosage, even for lifestyle solutions and over-the-counter products. It does this through its website as well as clinics, four each in Mumbai and Kolkata. “I always had access to an Ayurveda doctor due to my family business,” Mr. Sharma says, “Most people do not know where to find one, but whoever steps into our clinics has access to a qualified Ayurveda doctor.”
Market research plays a role too. Before they started up, they talked to potential consumers, and found that hot-button issues were stress, insomnia, and pre-diabetes conditions; Kapiva has pat ented products that deal with these concerns. The company has more than 200 GMP-certified (good manufacturing practice) products including pills, capsules, oils and syrups, derived from aloe vera, amla, ashwagandha, brahmi and garcinia, among others, for problems ranging from coughs and colds to diabetes and digestive system ailments or skin and hair issues. These are approved by the Drug Controller General of India and also by the Ministry of AYUSH, but the company is working on getting its manufacturing units WHO-compliant too — a first for an Ayurveda outfit — so that it can widen its exports. (Kapiva exports to Hong Kong, Singapore, the US, and Canada, with exports being 30%–40% of its sales.) “We had aspirations of selling globally from Day One,” Mr. Sharma says.
The company is also working with the Government of India to get Ayurveda products on par with allopathy medicines in the US, where they are registered as a food or health supplements; they want doctors to be able to prescribe Ayurveda. “Pharma companies in Europe and the US are trying to register Ayurveda products as medicines,” Mr. Badhani says. “We do not want Ayurveda to go the yoga way, where people think it has originated in the US.” Mr. Sharma adds, “It is our heritage, and we need to protect it.”
Kapiva has been growing at over 30% a month, and expects to hit monthly sales of ₹1 crore within the next year to 18 months and ₹500 crore to ₹800 crore in four years.
Financed by angel investors and Baidyanath for now, the company may raise around $5 million to $10 million over the next 12–18 months to fund its global expansion dreams.
