How SuperYou's protein found flavour

India’s relationship with protein has shifted dramatically in the past few years. A category once hobbled by myths, limited awareness, and opaque packaging has become a national fixation. Brands are now slipping protein into everything from biscuits and wafers to sweets and even water.

Much of this change can be attributed to a post Coronavirus surge in health consciousness. Social media influencers played a central role in explaining why protein matters in Indian diets, especially vegetarian ones that often fall short of daily requirements.

The message stuck. According to Mordor Intelligence, the India protein market is estimated at $1.52 billion in 2025 and is expected to reach $2.08 billion USD by 2030.

This enthusiasm also encouraged brands to shed the black box aesthetic that once defined the category. Bright packets in yellow, blue, green and red now crowd physical and digital shelves, carrying simpler information meant to demystify rather than intimidate.

Yet this appetite for protein has also produced a rigidity of opinion. A common refrain insists: “You must consume protein every day. No buts. Period.”

Nikunj Biyani, co founder of the SuperYou protein brand, is sceptical of this absolutism. He argues that protein has been recast as a saviour, sometimes at the expense of other nutrients. “There's been some amount of kind of villainizing of carbs and fats…” he says.

His scepticism shapes how SuperYou approaches the category, and it underpins the choices the young company has made since its launch.

Founded a year ago with actor Ranveer Singh, SuperYou sells protein wafers, chips and fermented yeast protein. The latter is produced by cultivating yeast microorganisms, unlike the more common whey protein, which is a byproduct of making milk and cheese.

“I think somewhere or the other people understood that it tastes better when it's kept in the fridge. So, they stock up than go buy a piece.”

Biyani on how consumers buy SuperYou wafers.

Biyani is clear that meeting protein needs through regular meals is ideal. SuperYou’s goal, he says, is to help people reach those requirements through formats that feel familiar and accessible. Their best selling format is the protein wafer.

Even though wafers remain the bestseller, flavour sits at the centre of every format the company develops.

Its wafers offer 10 grams of protein and come in strawberry, cheese, peanut butter and chocolate, and costs Rs 60. Newer additions include choco orange, and cookies and cream.

Biyani says a brand should cover the basics of flavour as the bare minimum, a lesson he absorbed over more than a decade in the food business before turning entrepreneur. The cheese flavour, he says, was an experiment that happened to work, while strawberry was a risk.

That approach guided the next format they entered. When SuperYou launched multigrain chips, the competitive set changed. Unlike protein bars, where it competes with brands such as The Whole Truth, MuscleBlaze and RiteBite, chips immediately place it against PepsiCo owned Lay’s, a mass market giant.

The plan, Biyani reveals, was to avoid creating unnecessary friction for consumers, so the flavour profiles mimic Lay’s. “There's masala, there's the sour cream and onion, there's the cheese and tomato.” There is also a pudina variant to appeal to eaters who love Uncle Chipps. “The idea was to cover the high selling flavours in the industry and then bring in some newness.”

It is a strategy that relies on familiar entry points rather than shock value. The risk of offering these formats and flavours in colourful packaging, Biyani says, comes down to one simple thought: “You don't need to have codes of yesterday. Consumers are willing to hear of something afresh, hear of something new.”

It is a bet that seems to align with shifting consumer appetites, and the company’s early numbers reflect that.

SuperYou says it has crossed Rs 150 crore in annual recurring revenue as it completed its first year of operations this November. Around 70% of its consumers come from India’s metro cities. Biyani says many of them, often through quick commerce, prefer buying the large family packs. “I think somewhere or the other people understood that it tastes better when it's kept in the fridge. So, they stock up than go buy a piece.”

Marketing, too, reflects this preference for familiarity and reach.

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Much of SuperYou’s marketing runs through social media influencers and Ranveer Singh. Biyani sees him as a co-founder in effect; someone whose reach delivers awareness and saliency. “He is a living embodiment of the ethos of the brand.”

A potential contradiction emerged when Singh launched a vodka label named Rangeela. Would that not undercut the ethos of a protein brand built around health? Biyani looks instead to the principle of balance. “We believe that a good amount of balance is the best thing that you can achieve.” The brand, he adds, is also open to working with athletes or people who reflect values it wants to champion.

SuperYou now aims to become a Rs 1,000 crore company in the next two to three years. A major part of that ambition, Biyani says, lies in closely tracking rival brands. “It keeps you in line with the trend and what is moving and how are people thinking and directionally, how do we want to differentiate them.”

For now, SuperYou appears to have found not only a large audience but a receptive one. Its growth rests on a straightforward proposition: make functional foods feel familiar, then wrap them in a sense of novelty. The strategy has little subtlety, but it has delivered results.

The next test is scale. Reaching Rs 1,000 crore will require more than flavour mimicry or celebrity reach. It will demand discipline in a segment where trends evolve quickly and large incumbents can redraw the market without warning. Biyani’s counter is vigilance and a willingness to move differently.

If SuperYou can keep that balance, and keep persuading consumers to stock their fridges, its first year may prove less an outlier than the beginning of a larger ascent.