Kenko Life, a new direct-to-consumer food and wellness startup in India, secured seed funding led by Rainmatter, with Kaleyra Co-founder Aniketh Jain also participating. This investment shows a shift in D2C funding toward companies focused on actual consumer results.
Kenko, founded in Bengaluru and centered around subscription-based healthy meals, will invest the funds to improve its operations in Bengaluru, expand to Hyderabad, and focus on tech, personalization, and new products. This has already drawn attention in D2C news circles in India, as food, nutrition, convenience, and lifestyle become one category where customer loyalty is earned with each meal.
Founded in 2023 by Neeraj Kumar and Vivek Chandran, Kenko is a good example of a D2C business in India, balancing convenient lifestyle choices with proper nutrition. The brand has four cafés, serves over 800 subscribers, and delivers over 21,000 meals a month. With a 300% year-over-year increase in revenue at this early stage, Kenko shows that food and beverage D2C brands built on habit and science can do better than personal care D2C brands that focus on advertising first. That’s why D2C investors are now looking more at recurring behavior categories rather than single-basket categories. People eat every day, and investors know daily habits are more reliable than impulse buys.
Neeraj Kumar says their idea was simple: India doesn’t need more diet information, but easier ways to get nutrition. People fail at diets because they lack the tools to make them work in daily life. Kenko turns nutrition science into ready-to-eat meals. With the upcoming Kenko app, Indian D2C consumer behavior will play a bigger role. Nutrition data, buying habits, feedback, and daily habit creation will become product inputs. The brand will be launching clean-ingredient desserts, high-protein Indian meals, and portion-controlled sizes, which is a contrast to Ayurveda D2C products that depend on telling stories about ingredients rather than showing measurable nutrition.
The healthy food market in India is estimated at $2B–$3B and growing at 20–25% annually. This category is still new, with consumer demand higher than what’s available. Investors see it as a repeat of what happened in fitness tech a few years ago – high customer retention, reliable income, and low customer acquisition costs once trust is established. Quick commerce D2C can also boost this category, especially desserts, if priced and packaged correctly.
Kenko Life’s café network also helps strengthen its omnichannel D2C strategy. Customers can try products in-store and keep the habit going with subscriptions. This contributes to supply chain and building the brand long-term. With plans to grow, new products in the works, and rising consumer demand, Kenko is one of the more interesting wellness startups to watch in 2025.
