It has clocked annual revenue of Rs 27 lakh and Rs 70 lakh in the first two years of operation.

Shilpi has another team of 14 people working from their office based in Sarjapur, whom she refers to as ‘mini-founders’ to honour their dedication.īootstrapped so far, she infused initial funding of just Rs 11,000 in the startup, which has remained a profitable business. Today, she works with a network of nearly 50 farmers and 14 labourers in villages in Tumakuru and Bengaluru. Now, I think we are at a point where people are starting to recognise us and see the value in our product,” she says.

“I have been staying away from my family for the last three years and working on The Milk India Company. Initially, she had to work on the farm herself and would carry knives and pepper spray. Her greatest hurdle, she emphasises, was in not being able to find the workforce and labourers to milk the cows and package the delivery which needed to be done at 3am. Shilpi says that being a woman and sole founder is not easy in the dairy sector. At the same time, it also demands greater involvement on the ground. Shilpi is a part of the lucrative dairy industry that reached a value of Rs 10,527 billion in 2019, according to IMARC Group. How Bharatanatyam helped this CFO-turned-investor hone her leadership skills In this regard, Shilpi consults with paediatricians, dieticians, and nutritionists about the right quantity of milk that is fit for consumption. If she says that the baby is not even a year old, we ask her to wait and not deliver,” she says. “I ask mothers about their child’s age before accepting an order. She always asks mothers about their baby’s age and has received many requests from mothers of nine or ten-month-old babies. The 27-year-old entrepreneur says the startup is currently focused on catering to parents of one to eight-year-old children, as most of a child’s physical development takes place during the formative years. The lesser the somatic cell count, the healthier the milk is for our consumption.” She says, “A machine is used to calculate the somatic cell count. What differentiates The Milk India Company from other dairy startups, Shilpi says, is their research and development into procuring milk based on somatic cell count. In fact, drinking cow's milk strengthens children's bones and also helps in overall growth as it is rich in calcium. At present, the startup delivers milk within 10 km of Sarjapur in Bengaluru, at Rs 62 per litre. The milk, certified by National Dairy Research Institute of India, is delivered in glass bottles. The Milk India Company delivers pure cow milk, which is raw, unpasteurised, and has zero processing involved. Six years later, in January 2018, she established The Milk India Company. “I cannot imagine children growing up without drinking pure and hygienic milk,” she says. How this café studio business run by sister entrepreneurs clocked Rs 2 Cr in two years

Pure farming milk