Most Indian consumer brands try to win at home first, then chase the world. VAHDAM did the opposite, and it took nearly a decade for that gamble to make sense.
Founded in 2015 by Bala Sarda, the wellness brand spent years selling teas, herbal infusions and botanicals almost entirely outside India, building a presence in over 180 countries through its own website, online marketplaces and retail shelves at Walmart and Costco. For most of that decade, India contributed less than 4% of its revenue. The company closed FY26 with around Rs 350 crore in revenue, profitable at both the EBITDA and PAT level, and is tracking toward Rs 500 crore in FY27 based on its April-to-June numbers.
That success abroad did not come without scars. A post-pandemic inventory pileup dragged the company into three straight years of losses between FY22 and FY24, forcing a harder look at demand planning and product bets before profitability returned in FY25.
With that discipline in place, VAHDAM has now turned toward the market it spent a decade ignoring. A dedicated India team, set up only last year, has already pushed the domestic business to roughly 2.5 times its previous size, with a Rs 100 crore annual run rate targeted by the end of FY27. The plan leans on functional wellness categories like sleep, gut health, stress and immunity, built around Indian botanicals such as tulsi, moringa and ashwagandha, sold first through its own website before expanding into marketplaces and quick commerce.
The bigger ambition sits further out. Sarda is betting that this preventive wellness push, both globally and in India, can turn VAHDAM into a profitable Rs 1,000 crore business by FY29, a scale few homegrown wellness brands have managed while staying firmly in the black. It is a slower, steadier story than the funding headlines most startups chase, built on patience and a founder finally ready to bring his brand home.
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Startup Unplugged
