Oat milk is a plant-based milk made by extracting the plant material with water from whole oat grains. It has a creamy texture and a flavour similar to oatmeal. Oats are a highly nutritious food that is high in vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Oat milk has a very low environmental impact due to its low land and water requirements for production. 

According to National Center for Biotechnology Information "On average, 65% of the world's population is lactose intolerant.”

Oat milk is therefore, a good option for dairy milk. Oat milk generally has more calories, carbs, and fiber than almond, soy, and cow’s milk. Furthermore, oat milk tends to contain more added B vitamins than almond milk and it is great for bone health

More about OatMlk

OatMlk was started with the main purpose of creating a substitute for dairy milk. A lot of kids don't know the real meaning of being lactose intolerant due to lack of awareness , so eventually their mother’s wonder the reason for their child not enjoying the dairy milk. 

“After 18 years, I realised that my gut doesn't feel right after drinking dairy milk. That is something I realised while I was in the United Kingdom. When I used to meet Akash, the other co-founder of OatMlk, we'd have a cup of coffee with oat milk in it. There I fell in love with oat milk and we decided to do something about it. So we returned back to India and decided to start an oatmilk startup” narrates Rishabh Gupta,the co-founder of OatMlk.

Both the Co-founders were completely new to the Food and Beverage industry. Additionally, they did their research development for 2 years and then finally developed a product. OatMlk was launched in November 2021 and aims to create an alternative to milk which is nutritious, healthy, tasty and digestible.

Usp of OatMlk

Plant based movement is spreading rapidly. Rishabh Gupta,the co-founder of OatMlk compliments the efforts of people actually trying to spread the plant based movement. OatMlk is a B2B focused brand which intends to spread awareness to each and everyone about oatmilk . Furthermore, OatMlk Focuses on sustainability by using glass bottle and Minimal use of plastic for making the label.

Lives touched so far and experience throughout the years

OatMlk initially touched lives of 700 to a 1000 in the first month itself. At present OatMlk has touched 1 lakh lives and intends to touch 10lakh lives by the end of 2022. 

“Nutritionally, oat milk is at par if not better than dairy milk. It is versatile and has multiple uses, but paneer is one thing that can’t be made out of oat milk. We would love to give oat milk at dairy milk prices, but for that people need to be aware of oat milk. All of us together can actually bring the change by bringing down the price and volume up.''States Rishabh Gupta,the co-founder of OatMlk.

OatMlk is funded or bootstrapped?

OatMlk were bootstrapped until the end of last month. OatMlk have just closed the first round of funding for a seed round of 1cr.

2022 revenue and 2023 projections

In 2021, OatMlk earned revenue of a few lakhs. Rishabh Gupta,the co-founder of OatMlk emphasises to count his progress more on the volumes rather than money aspective. Presently, 15-20 productions per month take place and he intends to scale up the company's production facilities for doing several things simultaneously everyday by the end of 2022.

Challenges faced by OatMlk

“I am still in the early stages of my entrepreneurial journey. I think in any entrepreneur journey there are a lot of problems an individual faces irrespective of where you are from. I would like to thank Covid because a lot of people learned to work remotely during the pandemic which allowed us to seep through a lot of channels which would not be possible without a physical meeting. Being able to sit in Kanpur has allowed us to push our limits to be able to grow. Working this way helps in prioritising which ones to fly out for.The opportunities are limitless and they are only limited by your imagination ”says  Rishabh Gupta,the co-founder of OatMlk.

Message for entrepreneurs

Patience and persistence is key. Failure is part of any business. If an individual is not failing at some point of time that means that they are doing something wrong. It's okay to fail and that's where you redeem yourself and get back at it. As long as an individual does that no one can stop them.

(Edited by Elvis Almeida)