In an era where convenience often takes precedence over freshness, GoSwasthya is building its proposition around a simple philosophy: everyday food should be made right.

Founded by Sulakshana C Chitale in 2021, GoSwasthya emerged from a deeply personal search for better food. After moving from Pune to Bengaluru, Sulakshana found it difficult to access fresh, minimally processed food that reflected the traditional food practices she had grown up with.

Sulakshana had spent years understanding markets, businesses and consumer behaviour. But motherhood changed her perspective.

After becoming a mother, she began thinking more deeply about the ingredients going into her daughter’s meals. What began as a personal search eventually led her to research the market, speak with other mothers and explore how traditional food practices could be made more accessible to modern consumers.

Today, the brand focuses on products such as freshly stone-ground flours from wheat to millets, healthy mixes such as protein-rich mixes and diabetic-friendly atta, along with traditionally prepared foods like desi ghee, oils and more. The brand prioritises nutritional value, freshness and transparency over mass-market convenience.

In an interaction with Indian Startup Times, Sulakshana C Chitale spoke about the inspiration behind GoSwasthya, the challenges of building a fresh-food supply chain, educating consumers, the company’s early operating journey, its B2B experience, the role of her husband Chirantan Chitale in building the business, the impact of Bharat Ke Super Founders and her ambition to build a ₹1,000+ crore brand.

From Pune’s Traditional Food Practices to Bengaluru’s Food Gap

Sulakshana grew up in Pune in an environment where traditional food practices were an important part of everyday life. Her sports background and exposure to traditional cooking practices also shaped her understanding of food, health and well-being.

She later pursued a career in finance and gained experience that helped her understand markets, businesses and consumer behaviour.

Her entrepreneurial trigger came after moving to Bengaluru.

Despite the city’s growing food ecosystem, Sulakshana found it surprisingly difficult to find fresh and minimally processed products that matched the food practices she was accustomed to.

The gap became even more significant after she became a mother.

In 2019, while looking for healthier food ingredients which were freshly made for her daughter, Sulakshana began researching the market and speaking with other mothers. These conversations helped her identify a broader consumer need: people wanted nutritious and traditionally prepared ingredients for their daily meals, but often struggled to access them conveniently.

That realisation eventually became the foundation for GoSwasthya, which was formally founded in 2021.

Why Traditionally Made Food Became the Core of GoSwasthya

For Sulakshana, traditionally made ingredients are not simply a branding theme.

She believes that fresh, minimally processed food ingredients can play an important role in everyday nutrition and that traditional food practices need to be preserved and made relevant for modern households.

But bringing these practices into a commercial environment comes with operational challenges.

Fresh products have shorter shelf lives, require careful sourcing and demand greater attention to manufacturing, storage and logistics. Unlike conventional packaged products, a freshness-first model cannot simply depend on long storage periods or processes that may compromise the nutritional characteristics of the ingredients.

GoSwasthya has therefore built its operations around freshness.

For its flour range, including wheat and millet-based products, the company follows a small-batch approach. According to Sulakshana, grains are stored for only around three days before being processed, helping the brand maintain freshness and nutritional quality. The company does not use chemicals or processes that can hamper the nutrition of the grains.

The objective is not only to sell a product but to preserve the characteristics of the ingredient as much as possible from sourcing to consumption.

Educating Consumers, One Product at a Time

One of the biggest challenges for GoSwasthya has been changing consumer behaviour.

Consumers are accustomed to buying packaged food based on convenience, price and availability. Convincing them to consider fresh and traditionally made alternatives requires education as much as distribution.

Sulakshana’s approach has been to let customers experience the difference.

The company spends considerable time educating consumers about why fresh and traditionally made ingredients can differ from commercially processed alternatives.

Whether discussing freshly stone-milled flours or traditionally prepared ghee and oils, GoSwasthya focuses on explaining not just what it sells but why it is made differently.

This education-led approach is intended to help consumers make informed choices rather than simply purchase products based on discounts or convenience.

Financial Discipline and Learning From the Ground Up

Sulakshana’s finance background has played an important role in how she has built the company.

When the business was in its initial phase, Sulakshana was still managing a full-time job while working on the brand alongside her 1.5-year-old daughter.

The early operations were far removed from the scale of a conventional consumer brand. Packing was done at night, while products were delivered personally by the founders on weekends.

This experience helped the founders understand their customers better and gave them first-hand exposure to the nitty-gritty of the supply chain. From sourcing and packing to delivery, they experienced the operational challenges directly while gradually building their customer base.

Products were often delivered during weekends as the company gradually developed its customer base.

The company developed its website and delivery systems while learning how to operate under rapidly changing circumstances.

From a 5X B2B Growth Opportunity to a Stronger D2C Focus

A major phase in GoSwasthya’s early journey came through a significant B2B opportunity.

The opportunity led the brand to grow 5X in a very short span. With that growth came the need for quick adaptation, operational scaling and learning while on the job.

The experience gave the team an opportunity to understand what happens when demand increases rapidly and the supply chain has to keep pace.

Eventually, the B2B partnership came to an end due to brand restructuring, prompting the company to focus more strongly on building its own direct-to-consumer channel.

For GoSwasthya, however, the experience became an important learning point. It reinforced the importance of having systems that can support growth while maintaining the quality and freshness on which the brand is built.

Chirantan Chitale Joins the Journey

Another important chapter in GoSwasthya’s journey began in 2023, when Sulakshana’s husband, Chirantan Chitale, joined the business.

Chirantan brought experience across manufacturing, supply chain and launching private-label brands for large businesses. His professional experience with organisations such as L’Oréal, Marico and Flipkart has helped the company bring greater efficiency into its operations.

While Sulakshana’s journey was shaped by the consumer problem, market research and her understanding of food and business, Chirantan’s experience brought an additional operational perspective to the company.

His background has helped the founders look more closely at manufacturing efficiencies, supply-chain processes and the operational requirements involved in scaling a consumer brand.

Together, the founders have approached GoSwasthya not only as a business opportunity but also as something they believe in personally as parents.

For Sulakshana and Chirantan, the larger question is how everyday food can be made more thoughtfully and made accessible to more families without compromising on the principles that shaped the brand.

They believe that with the right intention, disciplined execution and the right ecosystem, GoSwasthya has the potential to become a ₹1,000+ crore company.

Building a Transparent Farmer-to-Consumer Supply Chain

For a freshness-led food brand, sourcing becomes critical.

Sulakshana explained that onboarding farmers involves a rigorous process that includes personal visits, laboratory testing and regular checks.

For Sulakshana, farmers are not simply suppliers.

The objective is to build a supply chain where quality, transparency and traditional agricultural practices can coexist.

The vision also extends beyond farming. GoSwasthya is looking at ways to empower micro-units in Tier 2 and Tier 3 locations and rural parts of India, creating opportunities for smaller ecosystem participants to become part of a more decentralised food supply chain.

The broader objective is to create a system in which traditional practices and local capabilities can become part of a modern food business without losing their original context.

Bharat Ke Super Founders and a New Level of Confidence

A significant turning point for GoSwasthya came with its appearance on Bharat Ke Super Founders.

Before the show, Sulakshana had been uncertain about the company’s fundraising journey and whether investors would connect with the business model.

The response not only from the tycoons, but also from the market and Suniel Shetty himself, provided a major confidence boost for the founder.

The exposure helped increase awareness around GoSwasthya and generated interest from investors, vendors and customers. The company also witnessed an increase in orders following the exposure.

For Sulakshana, the experience was significant because it validated the consumer relevance of the problem GoSwasthya was trying to solve.

Growing Without Compromising the Core Proposition

According to Sulakshana, GoSwasthya has been recording approximately 10–15% month-on-month growth, and the company is now preparing to raise funds to accelerate its next phase of expansion.

As the company grows, maintaining quality and freshness remains one of its biggest challenges.

The brand is looking beyond its current strong presence in Bengaluru and plans to expand into markets including Hyderabad, Gurugram and Mumbai-Pune, with Chennai also being considered.

Amazon and quick-commerce platforms are expected to play an important role in expanding product availability.

However, Sulakshana does not see technology as a replacement for the brand’s traditional philosophy.

Instead, she sees technology as an enabler that can help GoSwasthya scale its traditional food model more efficiently.

Using Technology to Make Traditional Food More Efficient

GoSwasthya is increasingly using technology, including AI and data analytics, across manufacturing, logistics and demand planning.

For a fresh-food business, accurate demand forecasting is particularly important.

Overproduction can lead to wastage, while underproduction can result in stock-outs and dissatisfied customers.

By analysing customer behaviour and demand patterns, the company aims to improve production planning and logistics while moving towards faster delivery.

AI and data are also being explored to understand which product categories have stronger demand and where marketing and brand-building efforts should be concentrated.

The objective is straightforward: use modern technology to make a traditional-food business more efficient without compromising the principles behind the products.

Building a ₹1,000+ Crore Brand

Sulakshana’s long-term ambition for GoSwasthya is substantial.

She and Chirantan want to build the company into a ₹1,000+ crore business while maintaining the quality, transparency and customer trust that have shaped its journey.

For Sulakshana, the challenge is not simply to build a large company. It is to demonstrate that traditional food practices, modern technology and commercial scale can coexist.

That ambition also reflects their perspective as parents. Their belief in the problem they are solving and the impact of better everyday food remains central to their approach.

The founders believe that with the right intention and execution, the company can build towards its ₹1,000+ crore ambition.

As GoSwasthya prepares for its next phase of expansion and fundraising, the company will have to scale sourcing, manufacturing, logistics and distribution across markets while preserving the freshness and traditional preparation methods that differentiate it.

The Road Ahead for GoSwasthya

What began with Sulakshana’s search for freshly made, healthier food ingredients for her daughter has evolved into a consumer brand attempting to bring traditional food practices into a modern retail environment.

GoSwasthya’s journey has involved learning from the ground up — from packing orders at night and personally delivering products on weekends to navigating a rapid B2B growth phase, developing its D2C infrastructure and building a more structured supply chain.

With Chirantan joining the business in 2023, the founders have combined Sulakshana’s consumer-led perspective with his experience in manufacturing, supply chain and private-label brand building across organisations including L’Oréal, Marico and Flipkart.

The next phase will test whether the company can take that foundation to a much larger scale.

For Sulakshana and Chirantan, the goal is not simply to build a large food company. It is to demonstrate that traditional food practices, modern technology, responsible sourcing and commercial scale can coexist.

As GoSwasthya works towards its ₹1,000+ crore ambition, its ability to preserve quality while expanding access could determine how successfully the brand transitions from a Bengaluru-focused startup into a larger Indian food business.

Interview By: Arushi Agarwal