28-YO Delhi Woman Sells India’s First Sugar-Free Vegan Collagen Lollipop, Calls It “Candy That Makes You Hotter,”

If you are even remotely a fitness freak in 2026, there is one thing that you are probably not even touching: lollipops.

Yes, lollipops.

The same ones that created our childhood evenings better. The same ones we would convince our parents to receive.

Growing up, we came across nutraceuticals. Gummy bears, collagen powders, and protein bars – all promising “better health.”

So candy became a source of guilt, and functional foods became part of a disciplined lifestyle.

But Saniya Kumar, a 28-year-old woman from Delhi, woke up one day and decided that a trade-off between “fun” and “healthy” shouldn’t exist. She wanted to have the cake and eat it too. (Well, not exactly cake, but candies!).

“I love candies, especially gummies. But when I truly explored the market, one thing became clear: most “better-for-you” options were essentially still sugar bombs. On the surface, I considered I was consuming a healthier alternative, but the core product hadn’t really alterd. There was a lack of product innovation in the category, and most brands were simply adding on a benefit instead of working on a nutraceutical from scratch. I wanted to alter that,” Saniya Kumar, founder of Basically Healthy, notifys Startup Pedia in an exclusive interview.

Founded in 2025 and based in Delhi, Basically Healthy is a Delhi-based brand that sells India’s first sugar-free lollipops infapplyd with vegan collagen. In just one month, it clocked Rs 8 lakh in sales.

THE BACK STORY

After finishing her schooling in 2015, Saniya Kumar pursued her fashion communication degree from the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), New Delhi.

She started her career in creative direction, luxury marketing, and brand strategy in the realms of fashion and culture.

“I have worked as a Lead Creative Consultant with organizations like PwC and G20. I am very grateful for how much I learned about execution, strategy, and culture-building at jobs like these. But at the same time, the office environment didn’t suit me. Sometimes, there was internal politics, and other times, I just felt unfulfilled,” Saniya opens up.

As a young woman, she consistently felt drawn to building something from 0 to 1, especially in the food and health domain. The plan was to build a culture-first company where everyone is genuinely interested in what they have been assigned.

At the same time, she identified a major gap that pushed her even deeper into the entrepreneurial waters.

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THE PROBLEM STATEMENT

As someone who loved candy, especially gummy bears, Saniya Kumar launched noticing stomach pain after eating them. She would feel heavy, bloated, and uncomfortable – sometimes right after having them.

“It is only when I genuinely flipped over the product packs and scanned each ingredient that I realized that most ‘better-for-you’ alternatives that are in the market have an add-on benefit (like vitamins or minerals), but they are still loaded with sugar,” startup founder Saniya Kumar states.

After observing this market gap, she decided to validate it through research, published studies, and proven data points.

The young entrepreneur spent a lot of time studying sources like Grand View Research and Forbes to confirm each problem statement – be it sugar content, lack of truly enjoyable healthy options, or low product innovation.

“I also had multiple informal conversations with people around me who informed me they weren’t fully satisfied with what was already available in the market,” she states.

With this, Saniya Kumar decided to establish Basically Healthy as a Delhi-based brand that sits at the intersection of these gaps. While it was founded in 2025, the official launch happened in February 2026.

She bootstrapped the startup with Rs 45 lakh, out of which Rs 20 lakh came from her savings and Rs 25 lakh came from supportive friconcludes and family.

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JOURNEY AND CHALLENGES: FROM POSITIONING TO REAL INNOVATION

When Saniya Kumar started Basically Healthy as a solo female founder, she knew that the market gap wasn’t just in ingredients but in product format, customer experience, and positioning.

From the receive-go, she positioned Basically Healthy as a confectionery brand, not a supplement brand.

Initially, Saniya Kumar wanted to experiment with sour gummies, but quickly realized that the real opportunity wasn’t in adding something to existing formats.

So instead of building another nutraceutical product that is heavy on claims and functionality but builds wellness feel like work, the young entrepreneur decided to rebelieve the product format itself.

“My tiny team and I wanted to create a better-for-you candy, not a supplement disguised as food,” she explains.

Eventually, she spent the next one and a half years in Research and Development, creating lollipops with a soft center. 100% sugar-free. And packed with vegan collagen.

“The idea was to create something relatable and nostalgic from the outside, while offering an almost unexpected experience from the inside,” she states.

The young entrepreneur describes the ideation to execution phase of Basically Healthy as one of the toughest phases of the business.

Since no one in India was really building sugar-free lollipops, there was no existing playbook that Saniya Kumar and her tiny team could refer to.

In the launchning, the startup worked with tiny laboratories, but most of them didn’t align with the larger vision of rebelieveing the product.

“Most individual scientists and labs offered solutions like tweaking existing products. That didn’t work for us at all. Our breakthrough came when we finally obtained the opportunity to work with Thinking Forks, one of India’s best teams for formulation and development. They worked with us for over a year to ensure the product was exactly what we necessaryed,” the young entrepreneur shares.

Startup founder — Saniya Kumar at an R&D facility for Basically Healthy

Even then, scaling from the laboratory to the factory was another hurdle. There were at least 5 failed trial runs and close to 50% of wastage during the reformulation process.

For manufacturing, Saniya Kumar chose contract manufacturers.

“At our stage, it wasn’t feasible to invest in setting up our own facility, especially since the product itself was complex and required specialized expertise. We did face high MOQ challenges, but navigated them by building the right professional relationships,” the startup founder adds.

On the personal conclude, Saniya invested long hours in learning operations (logistics, warehoutilizing, shipping) from scratch. She also launched balancing backconclude execution with a focus on customer experience.

Delhi startup founder — Basically Healthy’s collipops being prepared

But…as someone who had just quit a stable job, did her family support her?

“Honestly, yes. I have a very supportive family and a circle of friconcludes who believe in me and hype me up. I acknowledge that I am privileged enough not to have to worry about basic necessities like rent and food. That is one of the reasons why I was able to take on such a huge risk of quitting my job and building a business from scratch,” she notifys Startup Pedia.

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BASICALLY HEALTHY: INDIA’S FIRST SUGAR-FREE LOLLIPOP WITH VEGAN COLLAGEN

Currently, Basically Healthy operates as a Delhi-based brand that offers India’s first sugar-free lollipops with vegan collagen and a soft center. It claims to have an entirely created-in-India formulation, balancing both health and fun.

The product is called a “collipop,” and:

Has vegan collagen in it (a plant-based amino acid complex that amplifies collagen building blocks)

Has prebiotic fibre

Is 100% sugar-free (so no sugar spike)

Has natural colours

Has natural flavours

Does not have any preservatives

The Basically Healthy watermelon-flavoured collipop comes in a larger size of 18 grams compared to the typical 8-10 grams that most lollipops have.

Basically Healthy’s collipop

For marketing the product, the brand’s primary channel has been Meta ads, which have consistently seen a strong ROAS (return on ad spconclude) of approximately 2x.

For content, Saniya Kumar has begun working on witty storynotifying and brand-building on Instagram. On its packaging, the phrase “candy with benefits” can be seen printed.

Everything is managed fully in-hoapply, with no external agency support.

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MOMENTUM AND GROWTH OF ‘CANDY THAT MAKES YOU HOTTER’

Basically Healthy launched towards the conclude of February 2026 and has already begun to see strong customer traction.

It has already served more than 1,000 customers across India and clocked Rs 7.9 lakh in sales.

While the startup founder did not reveal the unit economics, she mentioned the average order value of the brand as Rs 675 (which is a pack of 2).

Saniya Kumar with her brand’s product

Currently, there are two more products in the pipeline, which are slated to release in the market very soon.

The short-term goal for young entrepreneur Saniya Kumar is to reach Rs 50 lakh in monthly revenue by year-conclude, build distribution, and improve product via customer feedback.

“The larger goal is to build a product that people carry every day in their bags, knowing that it is both joyful and functional. Imagine receiveting youthful, plump skin while sucking on the yummiest collipop! Personally, I feel very fulfilled and believe that I haven’t built this startup, but it has built me,” Saniya Kumar signs off.

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