Our Founder: Shubha Bhatnagar
At the forefront of our journey is Shubha Bhatnagar, a visionary agritech entrepreneur. A seasoned leader who brings a unique perspective, blending her homemaking roots with a passion for revolutionizing saffron cultivation.
Committed to confronting the challenges faced by saffron growers, Shubha is on a relentless mission. Her goal is to bridge the saffron demand-supply gap, reduce industry reliance on imports, and liberate saffron cultivation from geographical and climatic constraints.
Why we grind slowly
Most spice powder in India is made at speed. Industrial grinders run hot and fast, and heat carries away the volatile oils — the very things that hold aroma and flavour. We went the other way. Our chakki turns at 91 RPM, slow enough that the stone stays close to room temperature. It takes far longer. It also means the atta still smells like wheat, and the haldi still smells like haldi.
Chillies we do not grind at all. We pound them — कुटी — the way it was done before machines. Pounding leaves the flake coarse and uneven, which is what lets colour and heat release slowly into the oil instead of all at once. Ground fine and fast, a chilli loses its character, and colour is often added back in to make up for what was lost. Ours does not need it.
The twenty-five women of Mainpuri
Twenty-five women work at Shubhavni. Almost all come from rural backgrounds, from Mainpuri and the villages around it. They do the work end to end — drying, cleaning, sorting, grinding, pounding, packing and labelling. Nothing leaves here that has not passed through their hands.
Slow methods need people who care about doing them properly, and a homemaker starting a business in Mainpuri knew exactly where to find them.
We would rather show you than tell you
Trust in Indian spices has been broken by people who say the right things on a packet. So we publish the lab reports instead. Our Lakadong turmeric and both our chillies are tested for lead, cadmium, arsenic and mercury. The chillies are tested further — for artificial added colour, pungency, grit and mould. Our saffron carries a full ISO 3632 analysis: crocin, safranal and picrocrocin, the three values that measure colouring strength, aroma and bitterness, along with tests for artificial colour, foreign matter and mould.