HoneyVeda: Scaling Startup Presence Across the Honey Value Chain
HoneyVeda was founded in 2019 by Hardik Joshi, a business-analyst-turned-apiarist, to promote ethical beekeeping practices and produce and sell high-quality honey. To realise this vision, the startup partnered with farmers, Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) and government agencies to supply beekeeping equipment, deliver training to novice beekeepers and produce honey from bee boxes placed on agricultural land.
Over the years, HoneyVeda has collaborated with 35 farmers, trained more than 1,000 beekeepers in six Indian states and retailed monofloral and multifloral honey varieties through its online storefront. In doing so, it faced numerous challenges in the Indian apiculture ecosystem such as farmers’ lack of awareness about beekeeping, issues of honey adulteration and value chain authentication, limited market linkages and poor demand for indigenous honey varieties. The startup also navigated organisational complexities vis-à-vis limited financial and mental resources and human capital challenges.
The case highlights the startup’s challenges in scaling up within a fragmented and uneven honey value chain. How can HoneyVeda scale up while retaining the core objective of evangelising ethical beekeeping and honey quality?
