The outfit has revealed that about 90 per cent of its investments in protein firms took place only in the last two years.
Dilip Kumar, Investor in Health at Rainmatter, told NutraIngredients-Asia the above in the first episode of year 2025’s “Behind the Big Story” video series.
Rainmatter is an initiative by Zerodha - an online platform for investing in stocks, derivatives, mutual funds, exchange-traded fund (ETF) and bonds etc.
Aside from companies producing protein supplements and functional foods, Rainmatter also invests in businesses that operate in the health, fintech, and climate sectors.
To date, it has invested in 12 Indian companies that have a protein element to it - be it producing protein supplements or protein shakes, energy bars, or even protein chocolates.
One of the companies that it is funding is The Whole Truth Foods founded by Shashank Mehta. The Whole Truth Foods has made a splash in the Indian protein and snack food market in recent years for its advocacy on food labelling transparency.
Other companies that it is funding are Trunativ, Health on Plants, Evolved Foods, Devigere BioSolutions, and NOTO which sells low calorie high protein ice cream.
According to Dilip, Rainmatter invests approximately US$500k to US$2m in each company.
Protein supplement and functional foods consumption has become more widespread after COVID-19, due to greater health awareness among consumers, he said.
Whey protein for sports nutrition, being a legacy category in the protein sector, continues to form the largest chunk of protein use in India.
However, there is also a rise in doctors prescribing protein to senior consumers.
“The anchor group of consumers are people who are into fitness, the health conscious individuals, people who go to the gym or are active in some kind of physical activities.
“Then, of course, there is another group of audience who are recommended by doctors that they have to bring protein intensive nutrition to their diet, which includes the elders, specifically people who are above 60 plus year of age. That’s also a very large population. I think these two would be the primary audience right now for most of these companies,” he said.
Rainmatter has taken a greater interest in the protein nutrition sector due to a few reasons - one of which is to address protein deficiency.
“Firstly, protein is a very important nutrient for anyone to stay healthy, not just for bodybuilders, but for everyone.
“The second reason is that almost 80 per cent of our population lacks protein. We are a very protein deficient country and there has been great awareness in the past few years in the importance of consuming protein,” he said.
A study published in eClinicalMedicine in 2023 showed that while Indian adults might be getting protein and nutrients from pulses, legumes, beans, and other vegetables, efforts are needed to improve affordability of, and access to, high-quality sources of protein and fruits.
Another reason for investing in protein companies is to introduce more types of products for people of different age groups and backgrounds - including the poorer communities.
“We feel that as Indians, there have to be more options and alternatives available for people from different age groups, genders, and social backgrounds to consume protein.
“As a venture fund, our intent is to create an ecosystem which gives Indians better health and protein is a very important component of that, and therefore these are the reasons for us to invest in protein companies,” he said.
In terms of the whey protein category, the market in India is led by MuscleBlaze while The Whole Truth Foods and Glanbia are in the second and third positions.
The three companies together occupy about 93 per cent of the market share, according to data from e-commerce data research firm 1DigitalStack.
Watch the video as Dilip tells us more about what he believes are the new product development opportunities for protein nutrition in India.