Namhya Foods Growth Strategy: From Personal Story to Global Wellness Brand

Ridhima Arora was told that her father had severe and rapidly worsening liver cirrhosis. This initiated her journey as an entrepreneur. 

Founded in 2019 and based in Jammu, Namhya is an Ayurveda-inspired health foods brand creating herbal teas, snacks, and beverages using natural, locally sourced herbs. At its core, the company bridges centuries-old Ayurvedic wisdom with the needs of modern, health-conscious consumers.

At the time, Ridhima was an engineer working in telecom, far removed from the food business. Her grandfather had been running an Ayurvedic herb store since 1937, and generations of traditional knowledge sat preserved in notebooks and oral histories. 

Experimenting with these formulations helped her father recover, and that experience became the foundation of Namhya Foods.

Ridhima invested ₹20 lakh of her own savings to launch the brand, naming it “Namhya” after the Buddhist chant nam myoho renge kyo, symbolising holistic well-being. 

The team sourced pure herbs from local farms and set up their own manufacturing unit. They launched in late 2019. Despite Covid-19, the brand managed to sell over 2,000 units in its first few months. Since then, Namhya Foods has gained wider visibility through digital marketing and appearances on Shark Tank.

Here’s everything you need to know about Namhya Foods at a glance:

Let’s look at their start-up journey!

The Problem and the Solution: 

India's healthy food industry has been a marketing gimmick. Biscuits labeled "healthy" contained more maida than oats. "Sugar-free" products were loaded with fructose. "Fat-free" meant hidden sugars that spiked diabetes risk. The browns in whole wheat bread was often just food coloring on white bread. 

Ridhima saw this firsthand during her own weight loss journey, when she dropped 30 kilograms over two years.

The product line reflected this pragmatism. PCOS Tea for women dealing with hormonal issues. Liver Cleanse Tea with milk thistle and manjistha. 

Every SKU targeted a specific modern problem using traditional ingredients, but packaged for urban professionals who didn't have time to visit an Ayurvedic practitioner or boil herbs for hours.

Namhya’s core innovation was taking these complex, often bitter herbal formulations and packaging them into the most chemically acceptable format for the Indian consumer: a cup of tea. 

They productized the labor of traditional medicine, removing the friction of preparation while retaining the functional benefit.

Namhya positioned at accessible-but-serious wellness. You paid more than grocery store tea but less than boutique imported supplements.

The Initial Stumble: 

Then the lockdown shut down manufacturing units nationwide. As an essential goods provider (food/wellness category), Namhya could legally operate, but the infrastructure imploded. Ridhima returned to running operations with just two staff members, handling everything from production oversight to customer service to logistics.

What saved the company was timing and positioning. The pandemic triggered an immunity panic. Everyone suddenly wanted natural immunity boosters, herbal supplements, and Ayurvedic preventive solutions. Products that had been nice-to-have became urgent-to-buy. 

Starting out of Jammu offered operational cost advantages but posed significant visibility challenges in a startup ecosystem heavily skewed toward hubs like Bangalore and Delhi. 

By using tea as their primary delivery vehicle, they also risked being lumped in with recreational beverages - a market competing on flavor profiles like Earl Grey or Chamomile. 

Namhya pursued a "remedial first" strategy. They didn't launch with vague "wellness tea"; they launched with hyper-specific products: "PCOS Tea," "Heart Tea," and "Liver Cleanse Tea." By anchoring the product to specific, high-anxiety lifestyle diseases, they moved their brand out of the discretionary spending bucket and into the essential health maintenance bucket for their target customers.

Funding and Shark Tank:

Ridhima had bootstrapped Namhya with personal savings. But by late 2021, the company needed capital to scale beyond Jammu and Gujarat. Enter Shark Tank India Season 1. The pitch was emotional, personal, and backed by solid numbers. 

Namhya had 35% of sales coming directly through its website, a 50% repeat purchase rate, and six-month revenues of Rs 54 lakh. The ask: Rs 1 crore for 5% equity at a Rs 20 crore valuation.

Three sharks passed. Ashneer Grover opted out because he believed India was a taste-driven market, not a health-driven one (an argument that aged poorly given post-pandemic wellness trends). Peyush Bansal thought the brand lacked differentiation and might get commoditized. But Aman Gupta, co-founder of boAt, saw something else: a founder with generational knowledge, authentic storytelling, and products that solved real problems. After negotiation, they closed at Rs 50 lakh for 10% equity and Rs 50 lakh debt - half the money Ridhima wanted, but from an investor who understood consumer brands and marketing.

Post-Shark Tank, monthly sales jumped to Rs 40 lakh. The episode gave Namhya legitimacy and reach. Suddenly the brand was a nationally-recognized name with investor backing. 

Distribution: 

Namhya's post-Shark Tank roadmap focused on two major vectors: international expansion and omnichannel distribution. 

The international move came first. The brand entered the US, UK, and Canada, with plans to expand into Australia. Western markets often have higher willingness-to-pay for authentic Ayurvedic products, lower competition from local legacy brands (Dabur and Patanjali don't have the cultural cache abroad that they do in India), and strong NRI populations already familiar with Ayurvedic traditions. 

The domestic expansion focused on moving beyond pure digital. While 40% of inventory still moved through Namhya's website (high-margin, direct customer relationships), the brand added partnerships with Flipkart and Amazon India. 

Product development stayed disciplined. Rather than chase SKU proliferation, Namhya deepened its core lines. The brand focused on optimizing what worked: women's health (PCOS tea became a hero product), digestive and liver support, immunity boosters.

Conclusion:

Namhya Foods a story about clarity - knowing the problem you are solving, the customer you are serving, and the values you refuse to compromise on. Ridhima Arora built slowly, stayed profitable, and focused on products that delivered real outcomes for real people.

Markets will shift, trends will come and go, and competitors will raise more money than you - but a brand built on genuine problem-solving and strong fundamentals can endure.

In a world obsessed with unicorns, Namhya is a reminder that sustainable, profitable businesses are still the ones that truly last.