Former marketing head at Coca-Cola, Shripad Nadkarni launches own food startup Fingerlix

Shripad Nadkarni is starting up the third time with his food startup Fingurelix. He along with three other former executives of major consumer goods firms have set this startup.

The startup will sell fresh, ready-to-cook food such as curries, batter and mixes. Presently they have Indian, and Italian foods that has a shelf life of 5 days. This will be sold through Iphone, Android apps, and offline retail stores. Presently the retail stores is limited to Big Bazaar, Reliance, and Hyper city in Mumbai region only. Since this is a “well connected team” startup, pushing the product through multiple channels to touch multiple cities is not a big task.

When asked Shripad about this new startup he said “The ready-to-cook sector is a white space we’re hoping to address; we are addressing convenience and freshness with the brand”

Shripad Nadkarni started his career by doing marketing for Johnson & Johnson. Fivers years after that he joined Coca-Cola and lead the advertising campaign for Indonesia, rural China and other neighboring countries. He was also heading the new beverages business as a profit center.

In 2005 he moved out of Coke to start MarketGate Consulting, which is a strategic business and marketing consultancy firm that grows brands and companies through winning business and marketing strategy development, branding and execution planning.

5 months back he along with couple of investors like brand consultant Santosh Desai set up Maverix Platform at an investment of Rs 8.7 crore. The Co-founders of the venture includes Shree Bharambe, who was formerly with Johnson & Johnson; Abhijit Berde, a former executive at hospitality firm Gate Gourmet, and Varun Khanna who was with Colgate earlier. Presently Maverix is handling the marketing activities of Fingerlix.

Ready to cook food startups have not been seen much in the ecosystem. We wish Shripad Nadkarni all the best for starting up again and curious to see where the new brand would be taken to by this marketing guru.