When chips are on the way up
A Kerala entrepreneur looks to build a brand of its traditional banana, jackfruit chips
For 36-year old Manas Madhu, a branded banana and jackfruit chips maker, the agri business incubator at Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) has helped with his transformation from an entrepreneur to an agripreneur.
His start-up, Dr Jackfruit India, promoter of the Beyond Snack brand, aims for a makeover of Kerala’s traditional and widely-eaten banana and jackfruit chips, and has received a seed stage funding of ₹20 lakh under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana-Approaches for Agriculture and Allied Sectors Rejuvenation (RKVY-RAFTAAR) scheme of the Agriculture Ministry through KAU RABI (RAFTAAR Agri Business Incubation) Centre. Owing to the detailed research done on jackfruit for the start-up, Madhu added the citation Dr before the company s name at the time of registration.