About
Vikas D. Nahar is the Bengaluru‑based entrepreneur who turned a handful of dry fruits into a household snack habit. In 2016 he founded Happilo International with just ₹10,000, hoping to nudge India toward healthier munching. From those modest beginnings the brand now fills 40‑foot containers with gourmet nuts, berries, and trail mixes and clocks an annual revenue run‑rate that industry trackers peg above ₹500 crore. His work has earned Times 40 Under 40 honors and a string of innovation trophies, yet Nahar keeps the story simple: build quality, price it fair, and stay close to the customer’s kitchen shelf.
Before Fame
Nahar grew up in Sakleshpur, a hilly Karnataka town famous for coffee and pepper plantations. Farming was more than scenery—it was the family business, so conversations at home revolved around yield, soil, and selling produce. After finishing a Bachelor of Computer Applications at Bangalore University in 2005 he joined the Jain Group as a senior import manager, sharpening his supply‑chain instincts on everything from spices to global paperwork. A marketing MBA from Symbiosis (Pune) followed in 2010, alongside a stint leading Satvikk Speciality Foods, the healthy‑snack retailer he ran with his brother. Those years taught him two lessons he quotes often: customers want convenience, and investors may say “no” twenty times before one “yes”—a number he reached while raising seed cash for Happilo.
Trivia
- Nahar speaks six languages, including Kannada, Marwari, and Spanish, a skill he credits for helping him trade everywhere from Bengaluru wholesalers to overseas buyers.
- Before the first big bank loan arrived, he and one colleague personally sorted, packed, and couriered every Happilo order.
- The inaugural Happilo product was a simple trail mix; today the catalog tops 150 items.
- Happilo became title sponsor of Indian Premier League side Rajasthan Royals in 2022, putting the purple‑and‑yellow logo on cricket jerseys nationwide.
- When SonyLIV filmed a special digital grand finale for Shark Tank India Season 2, producers invited Nahar to sit on the investor panel as a “guest shark,” a nod to his bootstrap‑to‑big‑brand journey.
Family Life
Despite the scale his company has reached, Nahar says dinner‑table talk still drifts back to farming. His father, Dhanmal Nahar, oversees coffee and pepper estates; his brother, Veerendarr, runs Satvikk Speciality Foods; and the siblings often trade notes on sourcing and retail trends. Vikas married Sunita Bansal on 2 March 2014, and the couple have a young daughter who occasionally stars in his Instagram stories taste‑testing new dried‑fruit blends. The tight‑knit family, he notes, is his sounding board whenever a new product or philanthropic idea needs an honest first opinion.
Associated With
- Cricket & Cinema: Bollywood actors Sidharth Malhotra and Kiara Advani front Happilo’s advertising campaigns, while the Rajasthan Royals partnership keeps the brand on the IPL stage.
- Shark Tank Fraternity: On the investor set he has shared the spotlight with Aman Gupta, Vineeta Singh, Namita Thapar, and Amit Jain—entrepreneurs whose feedback he once studied on television and now exchanges across the table.
- Startup Ecosystem: Away from cameras he makes angel bets; one of the first was a ₹2 crore cheque for Mumbai‑based The Health Factory, makers of India’s protein‑rich bread.
From coffee estates in Sakleshpur to crunch‑worthy snacks in supermarket aisles, Vikas D. Nahar’s story is proof that persistence and a pinch of trail mix can carry an idea a very long way.
