While Archimedes had his Eureka moment in the bathtub, the circumstances that led to LQI took place elsewhere in the bathroom. “I love eating out. But once in the third year of college, I ate from outside and got bad diarrhoea. I was prescribed a course of various medications for 3-5 days. Then, as now, I believed more in naturopathy and did not want to put a whole lot of chemicals in my body,” winces Shubham Khanna, now 30.
Khanna asked his father if he could get a juicer/blender for around Rs 5,000 and stick to a fruit and vegetable juice diet instead of the allopathic medication, to which the senior Khanna agreed. “I did some research on the ideal fruits and vegetables to blend and made my own smoothies. After a few days on that diet, I had not only recovered but felt healthy and lighter. That’s when I really got into smoothies and nutrition in general,” he recalls.
This research would ultimately lead to LQI, a tech-enabled venture creating products in the fresh-F&B space with an increased shelf life without any added colour, flavor, preservatives or any kind of heat treatment with the use of their proprietary technology. The product can be thawed, mixed in milk or yogurt and blended for a refreshing and healthy drink.
“At the college fest in my fourth year, I set up a stall with my blender and lots of fresh produce, and ended up earning almost Rs 40,000 out of that Rs 5,000 investment in a blender. That’s when I saw the business potential.” Khanna teamed up with his fellow college mate Palak Kapoor, 29, and even while attending the same engineering college in Bareilly, the two immersed themselves in researching nutrition and the ways to preserve it for as long as possible in a variety of products.
On their return to Delhi, they teamed up with Kapil Kumar, 32, and began brand operations in 2019. The brand took eight months of R&D, with the help of the Ministry of Agro Processing thus developing a technology of freshly squashing, which maintains the microbial analogy of raw fruits and vegetables without any pasteurisation or adding any additives at any stage.
“Smoothies were the first step. Over the last two years, we have also tied up with the HoReCa (commercial F&B ventures) industry and have been supplying our smoothie packs to brands like iHOP, Chilli’s and many others, and now want to concentrate more on the B2C segment. We are also developing our next product category, which will be out soon. It is a range of plant-alternative milks that can be enjoyed on the go,” shares Khanna.
“Our thought is that if we can prepare and enjoy instant noodles in two minutes, which is delicious but not exactly healthy, why cannot we do the same with healthy drinks that are good for you?” concludes Khanna.