I am a sucker for organic and chemical free products. I personally used Kold press products especially the coconut oil and castor oil and I fell in love with them. 100% natural product what else do we need in life? As I always do my research well regarding products that I use fortunately I met the person behind this production and got to know about the products directly from him. It was a great understanding and knowledge that I had received and hence decided to give it a try. It turned out to be the best decision ever. This is the first time that I encountered the benefits of Moringa and surely gonna add up in my routine life soon. So here it is for you some detailed information regarding the company. Fun and informative conversations with the heads of this company and the use and importance of the products.
About ASTRA
ASTRA is a startup redefining food space with healthy, wholesome and nutritious plant-based products.
Our product line includes superfoods such as Moringa line of Products, and Cold Pressed Edible Oils and Body Oils
The mission of our firm is to provide healthier alternatives to adulterated and highly unhealthy food products (loaded with chemicals and preservatives) flooded in the market that affects every member of our family day today.
We thrive on the mantra ‘prevention is cure’ and ‘what better medicine than good food’
- Tells me something about you. Your life, career, family etc (basically how did this idea into existence?)
I’m Deepak and I hail from a small town called Dindigul in Tamil Nadu. Right from my childhood, I’ve always wanted to start a venture that positively impacts society. But like most millennials, I too was a victim of engineering in spite of wanting to pursue something relating to business management. Post-engineering I steered myself into an Analytics firm where I got opportunities to work with Global Marketing Intelligence team and Analytics Centre of Excellence team of Fortune 500 Companies which gave me an insight on how businesses work end to end. My heart and mind have always been into entrepreneurship, so I was all the while mulling over, exploring and dabbling different startup ideas. One fine day, I stumbled upon a US food startup making energy shots and protein bars from a plant called Moringa. The site claimed Moringa to be a superfood that it is loaded with 90+ nutrients, 40+ antioxidants and 8+ essential amino acids. It was touted to be one of the most nutrient-rich plants ever discovered. People were raving about it in the US and Europe. Mind blown by its properties, I tried finding more about this so-called raging superfood and I was pleasantly surprised to know that its origin is India and it was nothing but our very own drumstick tree that adorns most of our backyards.
Also, it happened to be widely cultivated in and around my native. I also learnt that every part of the tree such as seed, leaf, bark, root, flower and even the gum has medicinal properties and hence it is called the Miracle Tree. Ayurveda cites that Moringa has a cure for 300+ diseases. That’s when I got a spark and decided to start a venture with Moringa line of products and take the all empowering goodness of this humble tree from our backyard to the global arena. I initially started with sourcing raw moringa products for export-based markets. And then later on expanded to making value-added usable products out of it such as Moringa Nuts, Moringa Leaf Powder and Cold Pressed Moringa Oil.
When we ventured into cold pressing of the Moringa Oil, the whole new tangent of the cold pressing edible oils opened up. Oil, which we inevitably consume every other day, is one ingredient that can make or break our health. But unfortunately the oil market is flooded with chemically extracted oils (Hexane), hot-pressed oils and oils pressed out of rejected or sub-standard raw material, which is further adulterated with cheap mineral oil and palm oil, resulting in a highly toxic and unhealthy product without any nutritional value. This eventually leads to all kind of lifestyle diseases including unnecessary weight gain, hair loss, heart problems, diabetes, indigestion and cancer.
After becoming aware of the ill effects of the substandard oils available in the market, and having experienced firsthand the goodness of the wholesome cold pressed oil – the best way to retain the maximum nutrition, we started pressing edible oils for our own consumption. The setup and knowledge that went into cold pressing Moringa oil came in handy. Impressed by our oils, our friends and relatives were the first converts. This slowly spread word of mouth and we were asked for outside orders, which is when I realized the potential of a quality product and started introducing it to the market along with the Moringa products.
Now we have an array of cold pressed oils including, Coconut, Sesame, Groundnut, Castor, Neem, Sweet almond and avocado. And our oil repertoire only keeps growing.
All the raw materials are either from our own farm or ethically sourced from farmers in and around our area on a fair trade policy simultaneously bettering their livelihood.
Also, we are very proud that most of our workforce are women from the nearby villages – Our baby steps towards contributing to their empowerment.
2. How did you start this business?
Started with an initial investment of 5 Lakhs that I saved while working and of course from the immeasurable support from family and friends that kept nurturing the budding entrepreneur in me.
3. What are your plans for the future?
During this journey, I realized two things. The immense potential of our innumerable backyard herbs that are abound with tremendous medicinal and cosmetic properties are mostly untapped.
Also, the huge disjuncture between absolute goodness of the cold pressed oils and lack of awareness of the existing adulterated and unhealthy oils.
My future plan is to provide a platform that bridges these gaps. We envision to set up Project Green for Herbs and Project Oil to reach across the globe with adulteration free, nutrition-rich cold pressed oils and essential oils.
4. What lead you into this business?
Curiosity and the undying want of doing something that would create positive ripples in spreading good health.
5. What is your speciality?
- We are vertically integrated from farm to store, hence the quality is under our control
- We use premium-grade raw materials and process them as minimally as possible to retain the original nutrition.
- With the experience working with exporters and importers, our quality is unparalleled with international standards
- We do not want the plastic to leech into our products, hence we use glass bottles, which is both good for our health and the environment
You can mention anything else you would like regard to your products and pricing.
The cost of Kold Pure Press oil for a month will be lesser than the cost of dessert bought over a weekend.
Social media links of the products so that you can purchase it soon
Buy the oils from www.koldpress.in
Instagram – @kold_purepress
For more detail about our Moringa products www.supermoringa.in
Instagram – @super_moringa
Our products are also available on Amazon!
Moringa Oil – http://tiny.cc/urns8y
Moringa Nuts –http://tiny.cc/4qns8y
Moringa Leaf Powder – http://tiny.cc/wpns8y
