Lumiere Seed to Table Organic concept – Farm, store, e-store, restaurant, cafe and bakery started by Manjunath Panickaparambil (ex IT professional) and Organic Farmer Ambrose Kooliyath 13 years back pioneered the organic space in India with relentless focus on quality and trust.
Manjunath, an IT professional working in USA met Ambrose, an organic farmer doing natural farming during one of his visits to his village. That changed lives of Ambrose and Manju. Manju never returned back to USA and started this initiative. Over the years this duo through constant focus on Quality, Transparency, Innovation earned the trust of many families. On transparency, Lumiere Spring Festival at their farm showed how Lumiere grows it’s vegetables – attended by 800 customers. Mango Festival and Jack fruit Festival that showed 99 traditional recipes collected from various villages to it’s customers. The food is served in traditional alloy plates that has medicinal benefits and Lumiere encourages eating by hand. The interiors of the stores carry lot of natural elements and carries products that can help a family to go chemical free completely – from cleaning, washing, cosmetics to entire groceries, fruits and vegetables.
Nagaraja Prakasam has been Lumiere Organic customer for 4 years liked the service so much and become an investor in the venture. Manju and Naga took this thought to Lumiere customers and humbled by the overwhelming response and 20 customers have become angel investor into the venture.
“We are very honored to have the support of our customers – a great testimony in what we believed in for all these years. Thanks to this funding, in addition to our 8500 Sqft Marathahalli store and restaurant, Lumiere opened its second store outlet in Whitefield recently and our e-store started catering to more parts of Bangalore with 6 days delivery a week. We are planning to open 7 more stores in Bangalore & Cochin and also start online delivery to entire Bangalore and also in talks with more angel investors.” said Manjunath Panickaparambil, Founder, CEO
“Organic is a very trusted business, even a small deviation will impact quality. I was really impressed with Ambrose’s and Manjunath’s passion. Ambrose who lives in the farm ensures quality from seed-to-table. Even the crates that they use to deliver vegetables, shows Ambrose’s passion towards aesthetics and quality.While these days ventures are trying to attract customers with offers, here is Lumiere working on basic principles of business – just providing quality service and earning customer trust,
making them into Angels. I am happy to be one of them” said Nagaraja Prakasam, Founder Chairman, Native Angles Network – Angel Investor in Lumiere Organic.
Customers Turns Investors: Lumiere Organic Gets Backing Of 20 Angels
Bangalore-based Lumiere seed-to-table organic product firm, Lumiere Organic Venture Pvt. Ltd. has raised an undisclosed amount in a funding round led by group of 20 undisclosed investors.
Lumiere Organic will use the capital for buying more land for organic farming, marketing expenses, opening more physical outlets, scaling up its online shopping portal and also its restaurant division.
Speaking on the development, Manjunath Panickaparambil, founder & CEO at Lumiere Organic said, “Thanks to this funding, in addition to our 8500 Sq ft Marathahalli store and restaurant, Lumiere opened its second store outlet in Whitefield recently and our estore started catering to more parts of Bangalore with 6 days delivery a week. We are planning to open 7 more stores in Bangalore & Cochin and also start online delivery to entire Bangalore and also in talks with more angel investors.”
Founded in 2002 by Manjunath Panickaparambil and Ambrose Kooliath, Lumiere, runs an organic farming venture wherein its farm and bakery products are available in self-branded physical stores besides its estores.
Lumiere Organic’s all the farm produce are used as ingredients in the dishes served at its restaurant, besides being sold under its private label – Lumiere. Besides, the company also works with other farms for its additional requirements and stocks products of other certified organic product partners in its stores. Launched in Kochi, Lumiere later shifted its base to Bangalore to leverage the growing demand for organic products in the latter. Lumiere has two physical stores in Bangalore along with its online store. By the end of 2016, Lumiere plans to open five more stores.
India Funding Roundup: Lumiere
Bengaluru-based seed-to-table organic product firm Lumiere Organic Venture Pvt Ltd has reportedly raised an undisclosed sum in Series A funding from 20 undisclosed investors. The company sources its produce from organic farms at Munnar, Kochi, and Kolar, and reportedly plans to add five more stores in Bengaluru by the end of 2016.
India’s organic food e-store Lumiere raises Series A ‘crowdfunding’
The money, which came from the firm’s regular customers, will be utilised to buy new farm land, open more physical stores and improve e-buying experience
Lumiere Organic Venture, a seed-to-table organic food products company in India that also owns offline and online stores in addition to physical restaurants, has secured an undisclosed amount in Series A round of funding from a group of individuals.
All the investors in the firm are its regular customers, including Nagaraja Prakasam, a member of Indian Angel Network.
The firm is now in talks with more investors to raise fresh funding.
“Thanks to this funding, in addition to our 8,500 sq ft Marathahalli (Bangalore) store and restaurant, Lumiere opened its second store outlet in Whitefield recently, and our e-store started catering to more parts of Bangalore with six days of delivery a week. We are planning to open seven more stores in Bangalore and Cochin, and also start online delivery to entire Bangalore,” said Manjunath Panickaparambil, Founder and CEO of Lumiere.
The company was started in 2002 by Panickaparambil and organic farmer Ambrose Kooliyath. It owns farm land in different parts of south India to cultivate organic vegetables and fruits.
In addition, it runs multi-cuisine restaurants in various parts of Bangalore. The food served at these restaurants are 100 per cent organic and are produced by its own growers and farmers.
The food is served in traditional alloy plates that has medicinal benefits. The interiors of the stores carry a lot of natural elements and carries products that can help a family to go chemical-free completely — from cleaning, washing, cosmetics to entire groceries, fruits and vegetables.
“Organic is a very trusted business, even a small deviation will impact quality. While these days, ventures are trying to attract customers with offers, here is Lumiere working on basic principles of business — just providing quality service and earning customer trust,” said Prakasam.