US organic farming start-up to enter Indian market

Having featured in the Forbes '30 under 30' - which the magazine's website describes as a list of the brightest young stars in 15 different fields under the age of 30 - in 2012, Indian-American entrepreneur Nikhil Arora (28), co-founder of California-based Back to the Roots (BTTR) Ventures, is planning to set foot in the Indian market.

BTTR (pronounced 'better') Ventures is a sustainable urban mushroom farm that transforms coffee ground waste into a medium for growing gourmet mushrooms.

After making waves in the US, followed by recent forays in Europe and Australia, with two innovative products for home users - 'Mushroom Kit' for growing mushrooms and 'AquaFarm' for growing lettuce, basil, mint and wheatgrass at home - Arora is currently looking for a partner in India to launch these products.

"We are currently selling our products in about 10,000 stores in the US, and have recently started exporting to Europe and Australia. We are currently looking for a partner in India as well to launch these two products in 2015," he said.

The partner will import the products and market them, and "in the long-term, we can even envision a manufacturing partner in India if demand continues to rise, as it will allow us to make a larger impact in communities in India and gain efficiencies," he added.

Started in 2009, BTTR Ventures is a fast-growing business with revenues of around $5 million. Arora recalls that his classmate Alejandro Velez and he were slated to graduate from the University of California, Berkeley and take up jobs in investment banking and consulting, respectively.

However, "during a lecture, our professor mentioned that gourmet mushrooms could be grown on 100 per cent recycled coffee grounds. We were intrigued, became friends, and ultimately business partners and entrepreneurs."

"After much experimentation and testing, we developed a system ideal for growing gourmet mushrooms out of recycled coffee grounds. After a renowned chef approved our mushrooms as 'delicious', we incorporated Back to the Roots Ventures in 2009," he added.

The company began with fresh gourmet mushrooms, supplying about 500 pounds per week to Whole Foods and other grocers across northern California. Later, it started receiving queries from friends and customers asking how they could grow their own mushrooms at home. The partners then tweaked their business model, developing a kit that allows customers to sustainably grow their own gourmet mushrooms at home in just a few days.

"The product is a hit among consumers, so we are expanding," Arora said.

The company's second product, the aqua farming kit, he added, "is essentially a three-gallon plastic tank which, when filled with water, can grow lettuce, basil, mint and wheatgrass on the top, as it pumps up the ammonia-rich fish waste that acts as manure for the plants, while it houses fish at the bottom. It is based on a simple law - the fish feeds the plants and plants clean the water."

Arora is emphatic that since the "majority of our food is not organic and contains pesticides, it's important that people should opt for organic food."

BTTR Ventures' vision for the next five to 10 years, he said, is to become a well-recognised brand for millennials (ie, those born between 1982 and the early 2000s) - a cross-category brand that families will automatically think of when looking to connect with food by either growing it or eating it.