Kids’ food and nutrition enterprise ‘Lil’goodness and Scoolmeal’ announces $400k seed funding

Chennai, December 9, 2019: Lil’ Goodness and sCoolMeal, a leading kids’ food and nutrition start-up enterprise today announced the successful completion of $400K seed funding led by prominent business leaders such as Sajan Pillai (Managing Partner, Season Two Ventures), Dr.Muthu Krishnan-ex-CEO, Tata Health and Global healthtech executive, family of Lalit Pai- co-Founder, Nightingales Home Healthcare. Positioned as the kid’s taste buddy and the mom’s nutrition partner, Lil’Goodness and sCoolMeal is empowering millennial moms with a unique combination of ‘goodness’ filled choices for their Lil’ ones. Set up in 2018, the company is set to revolutionise the eating habits among children through an ecosystem of fresh and packaged meal options integrated with technology to create awareness of eating right amongst kids at an early age. The new investment round will enable Lil’Goodness and sCoolMeal to fuel its growth ambitions by enhancing their offerings, launching packaged food products, acquire and expand the sCoolMeal operations and improve customer experience excellence through tech enhancements. From freshly prepared school meals to preservative-free snacks, Lil’ Goodness and sCoolMeal is helping parents provide the best for their little ones. Expressing his delight on the fresh funding support, Harshavardhan, Co-Founder & CEO, Lil’Goodness and sCoolMeal said, “We're excited to have partners like Sajan Pillai, Dr. Muthu and Lalit’s family on board who provide not only capital, but also vast experience in setting up and scaling tech enabled enterprises. We are also delighted to have Swamy and Sukanya join us as a part of the founding team, who with their experience of kids’ nutrition will help us address the right problems. We at Lil’Goodness and sCoolMeal aim to positively influence the eating habits of our future generations through tasty, nutritious food options. With the fresh funds infusion, we plan to scale and consolidate our presence 5x in Bengaluru as well as expand to other major markets in the next 6 months. We will also look to build our reach and distribution network with educational partners while creating a strong online presence. Also, in line with the recent FSSAI guidelines, by focusssing on encouraging healthy eating habits amongst school kids, we endeavour to make food and nutrition and right eating habits exciting through a rewards program that rewards good eating habits amongst kids.” Sajan Pillai, who has launched a $ 100 Million venture fund, says, “I believe there is immense opportunity to influence good health at an early stage by empowering moms to provide the right food options for their kids. Globally, sustainable billion dollar enterprises have been built on this very premise- we see immense potential in the vision and passion of this team to build such a business over a period of time. Our investment is to support and guide them to find ways of tapping the opportunities in this space at an early stage.” Lil Goodness and sCoolMeal has partnered with schools to provide a healthy snack to around 50,000 school kids in order to start snacking healthy and tasty food without compromising on the fun and taste aspects. The company’s nutrition and culinary experts have joined hands to blend the two to create this wholesome experience. Today, the company has orders from 42 schools and 9 day care centres in Bengaluru. Additionally, parents in at least 55 schools have tried their service. “The India market size for kids’ food market, considering the top 8 cities, is USD 3 Billion. Bengaluru itself has market opportunity of around USD 250 million. There are over 550+ schools with over 7 lakh students and over 2,000+ day-care centres with over 2 lakh children, who fit into our target audience. We believe, we are well-placed to make a meaningful contribution to this market potential and revolutionise the kids’ food and nutrition space through a combination of freshly prepared meals and preservative-free convenience foods,” adds Harshavardhan. Pariksha Rao, Co-Founder & Chief Nutrition Officer, Lil’Goodness and sCoolMeal says, “As a fellow mother, I understand the compromises that we tend to make in what we give to our lil’ ones. We intend to help moms make the right food choices through our brands” Lil’Goodness and sCoolMeal will soon launch a unique rewards program for healthy eating that gives nutrition-based rewards points to kids for each recipe- this also will help parents benchmark themselves against others in their peer group.