Meet these agripreneurs who built Sandal Pure to manufacture 100% pure value-added sandalwood products, clocking ₹85L in the first year

Indian Sandalwood, commonly known as Chandan, is a slow-growing, highly valued hemi-parasitic tree native to India, primarily found in the states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. 

It holds a sacred place in Indian heritage, known for its aromatic heartwood and oil used for centuries in perfumery, cosmetics, Ayurveda, and Hindu and Jain rituals.

The high concentration of alpha-santalol makes Indian Sandalwood (Santalum album) unique by giving it a superior fragrance compared to Australian or Hawaiian varieties. 

Sandalwood takes 15 to 20 years to develop the rich heartwood that holds premium prices in international markets. 

The price of Indian sandalwood in the Indian market at present is Rs.16,500 per kg, and oil is around Rs. 1.50 lakh per kg. In the international market, the price is about 15-20% higher than in the domestic market. 

While the price and demand for sandalwood are high, the technical expertise required to grow it is missing. 

The critical gap between the scientific potential of Indian Sandalwood and the practical reality of farmers led Dr Umesh Kabade, a biotechnologist turned agripreneur, to step in. 

"When we visited farms early on, we saw that plantations were failing because the basics were ignored, farmers were planting at the wrong spacing, using poor quality seeds, and forgetting the essential host plants. I realised then that if the foundation isn't right, the structure won't hold,” Dr Umesh Kabade tells Startup Pedia in an exclusive interview.

Dr Kabade realised that reviving India’s sandalwood glory is about planting the right genetics with the right science. 

This vision led to the creation of Sandal Pure, a venture dedicated to fixing the broken supply chain of India's most royal tree.

In the Union Budget 2026, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman explicitly announced a new scheme to 'restore the glory of the Indian sandalwood ecosystem.' 

The government’s new focus on promoting both cultivation and post-harvest processing is a direct validation of Sandal Pure’s vertically integrated model. While the policy is just being drafted, this venture has already built the infrastructure that the government aims to create.

About the Founders of Sandal Pure, Dr Umesh Kabade and Nitin Patel

Dr Umesh Kabade, the founder and CEO of Sandal Pure (operating under Geosandal Farmer Producer Company Limited), was born in Bubnal, a small village in the Kolhapur district of Maharashtra. 

He holds a B.Sc. in Chemistry from Rajaram College, Kolhapur, and both an M.Sc. and a PhD in Biotechnology from the Institute of Wood Science and Technology (IWST), Bangalore.

With over 20 years of experience in biotechnology research and tissue culture, Dr Kabade is a former scientist at Florence Flora in Bengaluru, where he worked on high-value floriculture projects. 

He also served as the Head of Tissue Culture at Abellon Clean Energy in Ahmedabad, focusing on Bamboo bio-energy projects.

“My roots are deeply embedded in the soil. Coming from a small village of just 2,000 people, I always carried a love for agriculture in my heart. Even as I advanced in biotechnology and science, the goal remained simple: I wanted to use my education to give back to the farming community that raised me,” the founder tells Startup Pedia.

Nitin Patel, the co-founder of Geosandal Farmer Producer Company Limited and President of the Sandalwood Grower Association of India, currently holds the responsibility of bridging the gap between sandalwood farming communities and the venture. 

Since 2014, he has provided free technical guidance to farmers across India and 14 other countries through seminars and videos. In that year, he partnered with Dr Kabade after realising that farmers needed scientific backing to prevent crop failures.

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Initial Motivations for Starting Sandal Pure

The primary motivation that drove Dr Umesh Kabade and Nitin Patel to establish Sandal Pure was the realisation that farmers were cultivating Sandalwood incorrectly due to a lack of technical knowledge. 

Since Sandalwood is a hemi-parasite, meaning it relies on the roots of other plants for nutrition, it cannot survive in isolation. 

However, many farmers were ignoring this fundamental biological need, planting trees at unsustainable densities (often as close as 6 to 8 feet) without essential host plants. 

This practice of ‘random planting’ led to stunted growth and mass crop failures after years of investment.

"We saw farmers engaging in 'blind planting', ignoring essential protocols like host plants and spacing. It was heartbreaking to see their hard work fail due to a lack of scientific guidance. We knew we had to step in and replace guesswork with standard operating procedures," Dr Umesh tells Startup Pedia.

Beyond these technical errors, the founders also observed that nurseries were flooding the market with saplings of unknown origin and poor quality. 

Dr Kabade wanted to replace this with genetically superior material sourced from germplasm in natural forests, ensuring farmers planted trees capable of producing oil-rich heartwood.

Additionally, farmers were often terrified to grow Sandalwood due to the high risk of poaching. The founders sought to solve this by shifting from isolated boundary planting to organised "block plantations" equipped with 3-4 tier security protocols.

"When we started, the sector was paralysed by fear. Farmers told us that growing Sandalwood was a 'futile gamble' because of the high risk of theft. But we have proven that with secure block plantations and proper scientific management,  Sandalwood farming can be a safe, sustainable reality for Indian farmers," he says.

Initial Investment

With a clear vision to revive the value of India’s royal sandalwood farming, the founders began their journey in 2015-16 by supplying high-quality sandalwood saplings to farmers at a nominal price of just Rs 40 per plant. 

These saplings were sourced from the Marayoor forests of Kerala, known for their healthy and mature sandalwood trees. 

"For decades, scientists struggled with Sandalwood tissue culture because of its semi-parasitic nature and rooting difficulties. We realised that instead of forcing a lab solution, we had to respect nature, selecting the best seeds from the wild forests of Marayoor to ensure vigorous, resilient genetics," Dr Umesh says.

The aim was to reduce hesitation and encourage farmers to experiment with sandalwood cultivation. Between 2015 and 2025, they distributed over 2 lakh saplings per year.

Since sandalwood trees take nearly 20 years to mature, the founders expect farmers to sell the harvested wood back to them starting around 2036.

"Sandalwood is not a quick scheme; it is a 20-year commitment. You have to walk this path with patience. We tell our farmers to view it like a long-term fixed deposit, utilising intercropping to sustain their livelihoods in the short term while it matures," the Gujarat-based agripreneur tells Startup Pedia.

In 2024, they expanded into processing and selling value-added products under the Sandal Pure brand, procuring sandalwood from farmers who had planted seeds randomly nearly 20 years ago.

This allowed them to establish processing capabilities and test market demand ahead of the harvest cycle of their own farmer network, whose trees are expected to mature around 2036. 

To support this expansion and build essential infrastructure such as laboratories and processing units, they invested nearly Rs. 65 lakh, entirely funded through savings.

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About Sandal Pure 

Sandal Pure was co-founded in 2024 by Dr Umesh Kabade and Nitin Patel to manage the entire sandalwood lifecycle, from cultivation to the creation of value-added products.

For years, sandalwood cultivation in India struggled due to a lack of scientific guidance, fear of theft, and an unorganised market structure. 

Despite being the tree's native home, India lost significant market share to Australia, which now controls nearly 70% of the global supply. 

To address this, Sandal Pure guides farmers across 16 states on soil selection, host plant management, and regular tree monitoring to ensure healthy heartwood formation.

When trees are ready for harvest, the company follows a transparent procurement process. Each tree is scientifically tested for heartwood quality and oil content before purchase, and farmers are paid a premium of around Rs 7,000 per kg for high-quality wood.

The Sandal Pure brand was launched to bring sandalwood directly from farms to consumers, eliminating middlemen. 

Its product range includes pure sandalwood oil, skincare products (with formulations currently under trial for conditions like eczema and psoriasis), incense sticks, perfumes, and sandalwood powder. 

The brand remains focused on 100% purity, utilising ethically sourced wood and its by-products.

Business Model and Operational Status

Sandal Pure operates on a B2C model, controlling the entire value chain to ensure quality and eliminate middlemen. To encourage adoption, the venture provides high-quality saplings to farmers at a nominal price of Rs 40, significantly lower than the market rate of Rs 60-250. 

The company also offers free end-to-end consultancy to ensure crop success and guarantees a buy-back of mature heartwood, effectively solving market access challenges for farmers.

Upon harvest, the company handles all processing, chipping, distillation, and powdering in-house to prevent adulteration. 

This raw material is converted into a diverse product range, including oil, powder, incense sticks, perfumes, soaps, and specialised skincare formulations currently being tested for conditions like eczema and psoriasis.

While the foundational work began in 2015–16, the Sandal Pure brand officially launched in 2024. The venture employs a workforce of approximately 50 people across nursery operations, plantation management, processing, and R&D.

The venture’s infrastructure includes a Vadodara-based nursery producing 4–5 lakh plants annually, an oil extraction unit, and a dedicated R&D lab where scientists focus on genetics and product formulation. 

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Distribution Channels

Sandal Pure has two major distribution channels. They sell their value-added sandalwood products through their own website and other e-commerce platforms, such as Amazon and Myntra. 

Their secondary distribution channel includes farmers to whom they provide their value-added products; these farmers sell those products at a 20% profit through their own networks

"We believe in a hybrid approach to reach our customers. While we have a strong digital presence on our website and platforms like Amazon and Myntra, our most unique strength lies in our 'Farmer-Partner' network,” Dr Umesh tells Startup Pedia.

“We empower the very farmers who grow the wood to become micro-entrepreneurs; they sell our value-added products within their own communities and earn a solid 20% profit margin,” he added further. 

In their debut financial year, the startup has generated approximately Rs 85 Lakhs through sales, with the final net profit report scheduled for the end of March 2026.

Looking Ahead

The venture is currently preparing for a major scaling shift. The mass plantations established around 2016 are expected to reach maturity between 2028 and 2030. 

When this harvest begins, the current raw material scarcity will be resolved, allowing Sandal Pure to procure a high-volume supply of sandalwood.

Additionally, the founders have a scientific vision to establish a National Germplasm Bank. This facility will preserve the genetic material of the best sandalwood trees from across India, ensuring the species' long-term survival and providing superior genetics for future generations of farmers

"Ironically, India is the native home of the world's best Sandalwood, yet we have lost our market dominance to Australia, which now controls nearly 70% of the global supply. We are currently importing what should be our national pride. Sandal Pure exists to reverse that trend," Dr. Umesh concluded. 

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