Analysis · Commerce & Consumer Brands

Gramiyum explores fundraising after bootstrapped growth

What they do

Gramiyum makes traditional cold-pressed oils and natural foods

The bootstrapped company is now exploring fundraising for expansion

COVID-19 boosted consumer interest in health and ingredient quality

Gramiyum was started by Srinivasan Janakiraman after a 2015 health crisis.
He turned to traditional village-made cold-pressed oils and natural foods after a health crisis.
The company began in 2016 selling cold-pressed oils on Amazon with 3 products.
It now has over 215 SKUs across oils and traditional food categories.
The company is bootstrapped and now exploring fundraising.
Funds will go toward production expansion, R&D, team growth, and market reach.

COVID-19 accelerated consumer awareness around health, immunity, and ingredient quality.
The founder advises having a clear reason, validating demand early, and building scalable systems.

Gramiyum makes cold-pressed oils and traditional foods using village methods.
Its product strategy pillars are traditional manufacturing, minimal processing, and no preservatives.
It has direct farmer relationships and procures seasonally in bulk.
Manufacturing is done outside expensive urban centers (not Chennai).
It uses logistics partners and has branches in Bangalore and Mumbai.
Production scale grew from a few hundred liters to approximately 40,000 liters.
The company exports to six countries.
Export challenges include distributors expecting flexible credit and payments delayed 3-4 months.
Repeat customer rate is approximately 40-45%, previously closer to 60%.
Consumer education includes manufacturing transparency, ingredient literacy, videos, and Instagram campaigns.

Gramiyum plans to expand beyond oils into ready-to-use packaged foods.
These foods will have long shelf life and no artificial preservatives.
Fundraising will support production expansion, R&D, team growth, and product re-engineering.