Mondelez India shortlists five start-ups to join the first edition of CoLab in India

Mumbai, August 1, 2023: Mondelez International’s accelerator program CoLab in collaboration with Huddle has shortlisted five cutting-edge start-ups set to redefine the snacking industry in India. The final cohort comprising of Flyberry, TruVitals, Evolve Snacks, Happy Jars, and Nova Nova represent a diverse group of snacking brands with varied formats, well-being proposition, commercial excellence, and sound omnichannel plans. These start-ups were selected from a pool of 250+ applications spanning across categories like baked snacks, chocolates, confectionary and savoury snacks, from all over India. Through the program, Mondelez and Huddle intend to cultivate the growing entrepreneurial pool in India to drive growth, innovation, and lead the future of snacking in the country.
 
The 5 shortlisted start-ups will now go through the 12-week curriculum consisting of weekly virtual sessions and in-person interactions with mentors across Mondelez India as well as industry experts. This will be followed by a final showcase event wherein the selected five start-ups will get the opportunity to pitch and raise capital from Huddle and other potential investors. Thus, helping these start-ups embark on their next phase of growth journey.
 
The accelerator program is set to bring more than 35 industry leaders from India and abroad as mentors for the shortlisted startups who will delve into relevant business themes like product manufacturing, packaging, designing, corporate governance, logistics, etc. The list of mentors,    includes leadership from Mondelez India consisting of Nitin Saini, Vice President – Marketing; Varinder Jaswal, Senior Director R&D (chocolate); Sonali Mitra, Director, Strategy; Tejas Mehta, VP, Finance; Sree Patel, Executive Director & Chief Counsel and Desmond D’souza – Senior Director – Sales , amongst others like Vishesh Khurana (Shiprocket), OmPrakash Muppirala (Fountain India), Anand Shankar (Sharrp Ventures), Ashwin Bhadri (Equinox), Ankita Balotia (Fireside Ventures), and more., in addition to leadership from Huddle.
 
Sonali Mitra, Director- Strategy, Mondelez India said, “We’re thrilled to announce the cohort for the first class of the CoLab India Accelerator. Each of these remarkable start-ups epitomize the essence of innovation and hold the potential to reshape the trajectory of the snacking industry in India. The disruptively delicious offerings across each of the chosen five are underpinned by the customer centric innovation approach, scalable business propositions, and inspiring journey so far by the respective founders. Working with them as part of the CoLab program is going to move the needle on their brands, support our innovation agenda, and ultimately help deliver on consumers’ desire for right snacks, for the right moment, made the right way.”
 
Sanil Sachar, Founding Partner, Huddle said, “There’s a playbook that has worked for several brands that have become household names, and with CoLab India, our objective as avid backers in building early-stage brands, the endeavor is to assist the selected cohort in learning and growing from this playbook. Our approach has always been driven by a shared learning across categories and with our startups here we aim to get them to cater to a larger audience available across the diverse consumer sets they are targeting. Most importantly, with CoLab India, our goal is to bring together the key stakeholders to ensure this ecosystem builds in a continuous and sustainable manner.