Suhasini Sampath Kumar
Co-founder, Yoga Bar
About
Suhasini Sampath, also written Suhasini Sampath Kumar, co-founded Yoga Bar, the Bengaluru health-snacks and breakfast brand, with her sister Anindita Sampath in 2014. The idea came in New York in 2012, while she was on an exchange programme at the Wharton School and Anindita was working at Ernst & Young; after a yoga class, Anindita suggested the name for a homemade energy bar and Suhasini trademarked it that year. She returned to India in 2012, ahead of her sister, and spent the next years on recipes, sourcing and building the company's own manufacturing rather than outsourcing it. The sisters' operating company, Sproutlife Foods, launched multigrain energy bars in August 2015 and protein bars in 2018, before expanding into muesli, oats and peanut butter. Forbes India described her in 2022 as co-founder and chief operating officer. Before Yoga Bar she worked at KPMG and Multiples Alternate Asset Management, and co-founded FinAdvantage Consulting, which helped startups and companies set up financial processes. ITC, an investor since 2023, took full ownership of Sproutlife in September 2026 by buying the remaining 52.5% for about ₹645 crore.
Yoga Bar's first funding came from the sisters' eldest sister, Aarti, along with a government grant for the manufacturing unit and a Vijaya Bank loan, according to a 2015 YourStory interview; the first facility was in Domlur, Bengaluru. Forbes India reported that the company raised ₹1.2 crore from Fireside Ventures in 2019, later took Elevation Capital money, and grew revenue from ₹12 crore in FY19 to ₹45 crore in FY21. Filings cited by Startuppedia showed she held 30.73% of the company in FY25. ITC first bought 39.4% in 2023 for about ₹175 crore, and Sproutlife's turnover reached ₹452 crore in FY26.
Source: inc42.com
