This Meerut-based woman started a healthy millet-based baby food brand - made Rs 1 Cr in revenue.

Founded in 2022, Little Cherry Mom is a healthy food brand for babies that is millet-based, meaning that it uses millets as the primary ingredient in its products. The business offers a range of healthy products, including millet flours, instant dosa mixes, laddus, snacks for children, Bilona cow ghee, and immunity boosters made from Indian gooseberry In just one year, the startup has catered to over 12,000 customers.

Jyoti Srivastava is the founder of Little Cherry Mom. She is a chemical engineer from Uttar Pradesh, India. She worked as an engineer in the realms of nanotechnology and rocket propellant. 

These rockets would be designed and later commissioned by the Indian Army. But due to work pressure and a payment that didn't justify it, she left the job and started freelancing on Air Force projects.

When she was pregnant in 2019, she quit everything and focused on her baby.

The journey

Jyoti's entrepreneurial journey began after she became pregnant in 2019 and faced issues with breastfeeding her son. She researched healthy food options for babies and learned that locally grown, sprouted flours were the best. She discovered the nutritional benefits of millet, which is rich in protein and calcium, and has healing properties. Scientific evidence shows that millets can boost child growth by 50 percent and are effective in overcoming malnutrition.

Jyoti faced challenges in transitioning from a chemical engineer to a parenting blogger and entrepreneur. Her relatives mocked her when she quit her job and started spreading awareness about millet and breastfeeding on her parenting page. However, her company's success has led to recognition by the state government, and her relatives now respect her.

Jyoti started Little Cherry Mom in 2022 with her husband, Gaurav Goel, who looks after operations and finances.

Jyoti's journey highlights the challenges faced by women in India who leave their jobs after the age of 30 to take care of children, and only 27% return to work

A healthy food brand for the first 1000 days of a baby’s life

Little Cherry Mom’s products are based on extensive research and stand out from the competition. For example, Little Cherry Mom sprouts ragi to the highest protein content and makes it highly digestible. It also uses dates to sweeten products instead of jaggery, which contains sucrose, and the company's "happy tummy mix" is very popular as it helps cure chronic constipation in babies.

Little Cherry Mom offers healthy food options during the first 1,000 days of a child's life, particularly between 6-24 months, which is a critical period for growth and development. 

Complementary feeding is essential during this period, as breast milk alone cannot fulfill the nutritional requirements of the child. Failure to introduce complementary foods can lead to physical and brain growth faltering, micronutrient deficiency, malnutrition, and infectious diseases.

In terms of numbers, the brand has been successful since its inception. Till now, Jyoti Srivastava's Little Cherry Mom has earned a revenue of almost Rupees 1 crore.

In addition to all of this, Jyoti has trained more than 300 mothers and helped them cook millet-based recipes for their babies. 

In the near future, Jyoti is planning to introduce milk mixes and millet-based cereals next month. 

Her work is fulfilling and meaningful as she is contributing to the healthy development of babies, which is the foundation of the country. She also aims to expand her training to rural realms of the country so as to enable women to look after their babies and see that they’re receiving the right kind of nutrition.

To know more about the startup or buy its products, visit its website https://www.littlecherrymom.com/.