Lucknow woman almost failed at engineering, then quit a Rs 1 Cr salary job in Dubai – now sells oat milk; clocked Rs 2.2 Cr revenue

This is going to come as a shock to you, but if you are a family of four, chances are that one of you is definitely lactose intolerant.

For years, Indians have been unaware of the fact that most of them have no tolerance for milk. This means that their bodies are unable (or find it extremely difficult) to digest lactose, which is a type of sugar found in milk and dairy products.

“India is a dairy-loving country. And there's nothing wrong with that. But we need to re-evaluate whether our bodies genuinely love dairy or not,” Aarohi Surya, co-founder of Dancing Cow, tells Startup Pedia in an exclusive interview.

Founded in 2022, Dancing Cow is a sustainable food brand that offers dairy-free alternatives to milk, such as oat milk and flavoured oat milk.

In FY25, it clocked Rs 2.2 crore in annual revenue and catered to more than 1,25,000 customers across channels like quick commerce, e-commerce, retail, website, and events.

THE BACKGROUND

Hailing from Lucknow, Aarohi Surya, who recently turned 30, went to Jaipur to undertake her engineering degree. Next, she went to Dubai for her MBA degree from the IMT College.

For the next seven years, she swiftly climbed the corporate ladder in Dubai.

“I joined HTC as a junior marketing executive. Towards the end, I was the company's head of marketing for the Middle East and Africa region,” Aarohi tells Startup Pedia.

Here, she had a salary of Rs 1.1 crore per annum.

It was in 2020 that she decided to take the entrepreneurial leap and start her first startup, which was an application called Yalla.

“It was a combination of Zomato, Blinkit, and Instagram. You could buy groceries and recommend dishes, and post them for your community. I sold it off in November 2021 and made a profitable exit,” Aarohi mentions.

In 2022, she returned to India.

But moving back to the country meant giving up a certain lifestyle that she was accustomed to in Dubai.

For instance, vegan and dairy-free products were readily available there. Back in Lucknow, however, they weren't.

At the same time, Aarohi’s mother was diagnosed with diabetes and the doctor suggested she move away from dairy completely.

“It was my sign to start something in the dairy-free industry. I decided to make oat milk – an alternative to cow milk that is lactose-free and easy on the stomach. That's how Dancing Cow happened,” Aarohi Surya shares.

In 2022, Aarohi established Dancing Cow along with her husband, Anmol Goel.

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THE JOURNEY

Aarohi and Anmol bootstrapped their sustainable food brand startup and invested Rs 65 lakh from their savings.

Now that the idea of making fresh oat milk was in place, the next step was to produce it.

But that came with its own set of challenges:

Close to ten months were spent in the Research and Development process of cracking an oat milk recipe that tasted good, gave benefits, and could be used in everyday preparations like tea, coffee, porridge, etc.

“Once we finally got our recipe right, we moved on to production,” Aarohi says.

But very soon, the startup founders realized that there were close to zero plant-based milk brands that have their own production facility in India.

“I would fly down to Pune multiple times in a month and try to find factories that could facilitate plant-based milk production. It would honestly be a hassle, but there was no other way. We knew we had to outsource production,” entrepreneur Aarohi Surya mentions.

After speaking to multiple decision-makers of numerous milk factories, the startup founders zeroed in on a clean, hygienic facility in Pune.

Even though this meant outsourcing the production, Aarohi took a conscious call to remain in full control of the recipe and keep it completely confidential.

“To this day, one of our trusted team members goes down to Pune, adds the recipe in the machines, and oversees the production for each batch,”Aarohi Surya explains.

It was in March 2023 that Dancing Cow officially launched in the market and started selling oat milk. They released two products:

Oatish Extra Creamy Oat Milk (can be used just like regular milk in tea, coffee, and other preparations like dessert)

Oatish Rich Chocolate Milk, a ready-to-drink beverage

Two months before the launch, Aarohi and Anmol made the decision to initiate the beta testing phase. They sent free samples to cafes that promoted the vegan community in India. This paid off in the long run.

“Most of the cafes that are our customers now are the ones that we sent free samples to initially,” Aarohi mentions.

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THE MYTHS AROUND PLANT-BASED MILK

Since the beginning, Dancing Cow knew it had to battle the blurred perception that many have around plant-based milk in India.

“Indians are very emotional about milk and often are resistant to even hearing anything against it. This is despite the fact that 60% of Indians are lactose-intolerant. This means, one in four Indians are lactose-intolerant but they don't know,” startup founder Aarohi Surya shares.

“As a plant-based milk brand, we knew what we had signed up for. We started using social media, events, and pop-ups to educate people on lactose intolerance and the benefits that oat milk offers,” she adds.

Additionally, the brand struggled with high production costs. The founders knew that economies of scale would solve the problem, but that would take some time.

BRANDING, MARKETING, AND UNIT ECONOMICS

For the logo and packaging design, Aarohi and Anmol hired a couple of freelancers.

“The team we hired to do the logo, packaging, and overall branding was completely vegan. It's a whole different ballgame when someone who genuinely believes in your cause and is aligned with it in real life becomes part of your team,”entrepreneur Aarohi Surya says.

As for Dancing Cow’s website, it underwent at least three revamps. The founders wanted to optimize it for conversions and ended up hiring the agency that developed the website for Bombay Shaving Company.

“They charged Rs 2.5 lakh for the website, but it was an investment. We've seen great results since then,”Aarohi mentions.

The sustainable food brand startup also ran Meta ads and hired an agency in 2023 for the same. However, it ended up terminating the contract after the ROAS (return on ad spend) wasn't seeming justified.

Additionally, Dancing Cow used (and continues to use) social media for its marketing exercises. The founders think of it as an ongoing process that keeps paying off.

Initially, before 2024, the brand took the route of educating the customer about what plant-based milk really is. The team took a fun, quirky approach to it.

Later, they started partnering with influencers and creators and began putting out recipe videos made from Oatish Oat Milk.

“We've found that the latter approach works better,” entrepreneur Aarohi Surya tells Startup Pedia.

By May 2025, Aarohi started documenting the Dancing Cow behind-the-scenes journey on her Instagram handle.

“One of our freelancers suggested it…and I just moved ahead with it thinking I'll get somewhere close to 1,500 views. But things fell in place and I went viral-ish. My intention was that I should become the face of the brand and help people connect with it more,” she laughs.

To date, with over 4,000 followers, Aarohi edits her reels herself and keeps documenting her journey as a founder.

As far the unit economics of the Dancing Cow is concerned, according to the founders, if one liter of Oatish milk is at an MRP of Rs 299, then:

Rs 135 goes into the production and packaging costs

Rs 50 to Rs 60 go into the marketing

Rs 104 is left as the margin, but miscellaneous expenses like discounts, rent, and salaries also eat up the share

“All this time, we had been breaking even. But it's only as recently as the last six months that we've turned profitable. Right now, we have an average order value of Rs 1,500 and also run a lot of subscriber programs,” Aarohi Surya says.

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DANCING COW: OF MILK BUT WITHOUT THE LACTOSE

Today, Dancing Cow operates as a sustainable food brand that offers plant-based oat milk. It is a microbrewery that makes milk from plants that feels just like “the real deal.”

Oatish Oat Milk is made with mung, millet, and oats. It has zero added sugar, is low in calories, and is easy on the gut. The oat milk is also a source of vitamin B12.

It can be easily boiled to make tea, and added to coffees, smoothies, and even desserts. Basically, everything that cow milk can, this can too.

The brand’s products taste and feel exactly like dairy…but without the cows, lactose, and heaviness.

Additionally, Dancing Cow focuses on compassionate living and saves an animal in need for every 10,000 cartons of oat milk sold.

In FY24 (first year of operations), Dancing Cow achieved close to 30,000 customers through its website, e-commerce channels like Amazon and Flipkart, as well as retail stores. The annual revenue came to Rs 90 lakhs.

“Moving forward, we partnered with more and more cafes. Today, we have close to 500+ cafes and restaurants in India that purchase oat milk directly from us for their coffees, teas, desserts, etc,”Aarohi Surya tells Startup Pedia.

In FY25, owing to more social media presence, cafe partnerships, and quick commerce sales, the customer number surged to 1,25,000.

“This includes everyone who bought from us via quick commerce, e-commerce, website, events, and retail stores. Our revenue figure for FY25 is Rs 2.2 crore,” she says.

For FY26, the projected revenue is Rs 4.8 crore.

With currently two members in their full-time team, Aarohi Surya and Anmol Goel aim to become one of the leading plant-based, dairy replacer brands in India and eventuallyfile for an IPO.

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