An exclusive interview with Ashwin and Pallav jain, founders of Urban Granny

(Image - Ashwin and Pallav jain, founders of Urban Granny)

An exclusive interview with Ashwin and Pallav jain, founders of Urban Granny

In our conversation with founders, Ashwin and Pallav jain, we understand, Urban Granny aims to simplify Indian home cooking by reducing user’s time & effort through easy to use, value added, and preservative free, long shelf life ready to use products. Indian cooking involves complex, time consuming & messy processes like pressure cooking, kneading, boiling, frying etc. Users do not have time to spend hours in the kitchen to prepare & plan for food. They want it quick, easy and spontaneous. Our products allow them to cook traditional/new age recipes when they want, the way like it under 10 min without compromise on health. Statistically, Indians on an average spend 13 hour a week vs the global average of 6 hour. First in line product, the Easy Cook Range is pre-soaked and boiled legumes that take away the 8 hour preparation time and need for pressure cooking. Traditionally, for eg, the users need to soak chole/rajma overnight and then pressure cook it the next day before the actual gravy making starts. With Urban Granny Easy Cook Kabuli Chana, the cooking starts with gravy making and can be finished in just 10 minutes without compromise on taste or health. 

When were you founded?

Realising the amplified need of quick and easy cooking during Pandemic, Urban Granny was founded by Ashwin and Pallav in 2021.

How do you get an idea to start this venture?

Ashwin is a passionate chef and keeps experimenting in his kitchen. During Covid, amidst hectic work schedule, he wondered if there could be a quick and easy solution to assist in home cooking without compromising on health. That's when we realised that we can actually simplify the traditional home cooking with value added products, that people already use instead of bringing alternatives or supplements.

Briefly explain about the business?

Urban Granny aims to simplify Indian home cooking by reducing user’s time & effort through easy to use, value added, and preservative free, long shelf life ready to use products.

The Problem -

Indian cooking involves complex, time consuming & messy processes like pressure cooking, kneading, boiling, frying etc. Users do not have time to spend hours in the kitchen to prepare & plan for food. They want it quick, easy and spontaneous. Our products allow them to cook traditional/new age recipes when they want, the way like it under 10 min without compromise on health. Statistically, Indians on an average spend 13 hour a week vs the global average of 6 hour.

The Product -

First in line product, the Easy Cook Range is pre-soaked and boiled legumes that take away the 8 hour preparation time and need for pressure cooking. Often we forget to soak legumes the previous night, more so in Tier-1 cities with busier schedules and then we are left with no choice. Pressure boiling is a time consuming process, and users often struggle with water required or monitoring the whistles. Traditionally, for eg, the users need to soak chole/rajma overnight and then pressure cook it the next day before the actual gravy making starts. With Urban Granny Easy Cook Kabuli Chana, the cooking starts with gravy making and can be finished in just 10 minutes without compromise on taste or health. 

What is the future Plan?

So far, we have received overwhelming responses from users. Our initial users who tried our products once, ordered again on a monthly basis because now they cannot go back to the traditional way of cooking Rajma, Chole, Chana and Dal Makhani. Our future plan is to bring more such functional products for users to make cooking faster and easier without any compromise. We would initially focus on products which fit in users' lifestyle easily and thus, penetrate markets with omnichannel distribution across India and abroad. 

How different from others?

There is no one else offering similar products. In India, Ready to Cook brands have grown significantly and are assisting users to cook new recipes faster. However, most such products are not Indian cuisine focused. Secondly, they do not allow users to cook as per their taste.  For example Boiled Kabuli Chana can be utilised to cook all time favourite chana masala to chickpea salad and allows users to experiment and create new recipes as well. Our products can be cooked as per user's taste as there is no oil or masala/spices used. Urban Granny products have a shelf life of 12 months without preservatives and don't need refrigeration. They are easy to store in kitchen cabinets. Each pack is designed keeping in mind Indian serving size and that consumption differs when eaten with roti vs chawal.

How fast are you growing?

We are expanding our presence quickly. We launched the brand on the website (theurbangranny.com) in March and since then we have created 20+ Points of sales including Blinkit, Big Basket, Amazon, Flipkart, Swiggy and soon shall be available on other digital first channels as well as offline stores across India and abroad. Our users are repeatedly ordering Assorted Experience Packs on a monthly basis instead of buying and storing raw legumes.

What’s your background? Do you have skills needed to build this business?

Ashwin and Pallav have combined experience of 12+ years across global corporations like Danone, TTK Prestige, Agrocorp International, Nomura, Oyo Rooms, Godrej and Birla Group. They have experience across domains like brand building, go to market, channel acquisition and development, sales, marketing, financial modelling, research, business development and strategy thus making them an unmatchable combination to build Urban Granny. Both of them have education from premium institutes like IIM Indore, SRCC, ISB.

How did you get here?

It's Ashwin's vision to simplify cooking for users that got us here from an idea a year back. Cooking shouldn't be looked at as a complicated process. There is no alternative to cooking for a healthy meal. Most of us live far from home and miss home cooked meals. Urban Granny's vision is to aid in home cooking culture and help users cook at home more often than before. Everything can be cooked in under 15 minutes without long preparation and planning.

(If you’re a B2c startup) Who are some of your clients?

Our clients are primarily young individuals, couples and nuclear families in metro/Tier-1 and Tier-2 cities. However, there have been some traditional households who are now ordering from us repeatedly. With new products and extensive availability, we would like to cater more users in India and abroad. 

Website - https://theurbangranny.com/