TagZ, an Indian start-up founded in 2019, has brought to India a chip-making technology that produces tasty potato chips, while reducing the fat content by as much as 50%, and also keeping out cholesterol, artificial colors, preservatives, palm oil, and gluten among other things.
TagZ’s new technology called ‘popping’ involves using high temperature and pressure on the finest quality potatoes.
“We at TagZ believe that snacking should satiate both your hunger and tickle the taste buds. We believe our popped potato chips fit the bill perfectly,” says founder Anish Roy.
The start-up has launched two ranges of popped chips. The first one has a range of classic Indian flavors such as Masala, Cream Onion, and Salt, and the other, a range of international bar snacks such as Beer ‘n Barbeque, Thai Vodka Tom Yum, and Italian Wine ‘n Cheese.
The popped potato chips may be a new concept in India, but it has been in existence in the developed markets for well over a decade. The brand Popchips made its debut in the US in 2007 and has been quite popular ever since.
Back in India, TagZ has been registering healthy growth numbers as well while focusing on the top 30-40m households of the country through an omnichannel strategy that includes more than 30 online partners and over 2,000 offline stores.
“We have already sold over 3.5m units across the country. Our sales volume has grown 30 times in the last 18 months and our net revenues in the last six months have grown four times. Around 40% of our sales have come from repeat customers and these repeat customers have come back to buy 3.2 times more of the items on offer over the last eight months from the company’s website,” Roy said.
The start-up has raised about USD1m from a clutch of investors including Venture Catalysts, Agility Ventures, and Dexter Angels. Going ahead, the star-up plans to expand its capacity by adding more plants to meet the growing demand.
“Remember how we all crave for those imported liquor chocolates? One day, I want to see every international traveler to India wanting to take back TagZ from India,” the founder concluded.
