General Catalyst leads $6 million bet on FMCG firm Meolaa

FMCG firm Meolaa has raised $6 million led by General Catalyst, with participation from Claypond Capital, Colossa Ventures, Kunal Shah, Turbostart Global, and existing investors.

The company will be using the funds to build its AI and data infrastructure, create new brands, and scale its business.

Founded in 2023, Meolaa uses AI and analytics for new product development, packaging and branding innovation, and supply chain optimisation. “We wanted to build an FMCG house that's in the business of brand creation and not acquisition,” said founder and chief executive Ishita Sawant.


For a traditional FMCG company, launching new products or entering a new segment would typically require extensive market research, consumer testing at different levels, research and development, and a long list of approvals. Meolaa is trying to make this a more efficient process through data and analytics.

“We are a lean team with a rich dataset. We use data to form many of our decisions, from new product development to choosing brand colours,” Sawant told ET. “What started as the need of the hour for us since we were a small team turned out to be something with a good value proposition for the FMCG industry.”

Further, the company will be focussing on the needs of GenZ consumers which demand premium products. To that end, it will start by launching products in the personal care category.

"What excites us about Meolaa is Ishita's vision to build an AI-native FMCG powerhouse, replacing traditional R&D with intelligent systems that compress brand development from years to months," Neeraj Arora, managing director at General Catalyst, said in a statement.