April 8, 2020

Fairtrade coffee is familiar to every coffee drinker, and chocolate is also produced in a fairer, more transparent and more sustainable way. But what about spices? After all, they play a decisive role in the taste of food. Hardly any traders can disclose the circumstances under which their spices are grown and processed. The issue of sustainability here is often limited to discussions about disposable plastic shakers and single-use jars.

Sahil Singh and Alex Melnikov now want to change this with their start-up LYN'S. Sahil Singh, an industrial engineering student at Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences, had the idea about a year and a half ago to produce and sell Indian spice blends in an ecologically sustainable way. The name LYN'S is derived from Lynette, the name of Sahil Singh's mother, who laid the foundation for the idea with her traditional spice mixtures.

The original idea has now become a social mission, as the two founders use their production to help Indian women from underprivileged households who are often unable to build a self-determined existence due to a lack of education. By linking tradition and entrepreneurship, a production in India was built up, which makes it possible to produce high-quality spices and spice mixtures by hand. So-called chakkis - hand-operated mills - are used for the production. A positive side effect of this is the significantly higher quality compared to mechanical processes. In the latter, high rotational speeds generate frictional heat, which results in the loss of many valuable nutrients and flavors. In addition, manual processing is also more ecologically sustainable due to lower energy consumption. Sustainability and ecology are also emphasized in the packaging and cultivation of the spices. Organic certification of all products are included in the business plan.

With support from xLab and the strong network of founders at Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences, the start-up LYN'S made it to the finals of this year's GROW start-up competition run by the student university group PionierGarage as one of the ten most promising teams out of 67. In the meantime, the start-ups launched a crowdfunding campaign. With this collaborative funding, they want to realize further business goals such as the first import, bottling and sustainable packaging. For more information and to participate in the campaign, visit https://startnext.com/lyns.

"With our crowdfunding campaign, we want to call for initiating a change in consumer behavior together," emphasizes Sahil Singh, "because we both believe that consumption can also bring about good in the countries of origin. But it's also important to us that the food doesn't just taste like "seasoned salt," as is the case with conventional products, but authentic as in India."