MAM
TagZ Foods raise $2M in a pre-series round with Rannvijay Singha’s Endorsement
Mumbai: TagZ, India’s first popped chips maker and a premium GenZ snack brand, has announced that it has raised $2 million in funding in a pre-series round led by nine unicorns, Dexter Angels, Agility Ventures, Venture Catalysts, Klub, Indifi and Rannvijay Singha.
Prior to the current funding round, TagZ had raised a total of $1.2 million in seed funding from a group of angel investors in 2020. The company was a participant in the show Shark Tank India’s first season and had raised undisclosed funding from Namita Thapar and Ashneer Grover.
TagZ will use the funds to accelerate the growth of the company, enter new markets, expand its manufacturing capacity, strengthen operations and launch new products. The funding will also be used to enhance the company’s technology platform, strengthen its logistics network, and increase its marketing and brand awareness efforts.
Founded by Anish Basu Roy and Sagar Bhalotia in 2019, TagZ Foods manufactures popped potato chips with 50 per cent less fat, international gourmet dips and a range of centre-filled cookies. The startup leverages food technology to make potato chips that claim to have no cholesterol, no transfat, no artificial colours, or preservatives.
TagZ founder and CEO Anish Basu Roy said, “that the new funding will enable the company to pursue its goal of becoming the fastest growing food D2C brand .”We are thrilled to have such strong support from our investors In our journey of creating a fitter snack brand for the younger generation. We plan to double down on your efforts to grow 4X this year”.
With this, the Bengaluru-based new-age snacking brand TagZ has also announced that Rannvijay Singha, the popular actor, and television personality, has invested in this round and shall be endorsing the brand as well. Rannvijay is known for his entrepreneurial spirit and his passion for new-age and disruptive brands. His association with TagZ is expected to give the company a significant boost in terms of brand awareness and customer engagement.
TagZ, Rannvijay said, “I am excited to partner with TagZ, a company that is at the forefront of the D2C revolution in India. I love the fact that TagZ as a snack brand revolves around travel, sports and the outdoors. I believe that TagZ has the potential to become a major player in the industry, and I am looking forward to being a part of this journey”.
Dexter Angel’s partner Tushar Agarwal, one of the lead investors in the round said, “ Tagz has garnered significant consumer love as a brand in a short period of time. Since our investment in their previous round, they have demonstrated impressive scalability and growth over the past 18 months, while still maintaining a steadfast focus on profitability. As we continue to partner with Tagz, we are thrilled to double down and support their next phase of growth”.
TagZ has registered a 30x increase in volumes in the last 18 months. It focuses on the top 30-40 million households of the country through an omnichannel strategy that includes a network of 5000 retail stores, and availability in over 30 e-commerce platforms such as Swiggy Instamart, Zepto, Blinkit amongst others serving consumers across 22 cities. TagZ products are now also available in international markets like Kuwait, Dubai, Maldives and Australia.
MAM
VML India lands two finalist spots at Cairns Hatchlings 2026
The Mumbai agency is back in Australia with two teams, a UN brief and 24 hours to impress
MUMBAI: VML India is heading to Australia again. The Mumbai-based creative agency has secured two finalist spots at the Cairns Hatchlings 2026 competition, one in the Audio category and one in Design, making it the only Indian agency to have reached the finals in both editions of the contest since its launch in 2025.
Four people will make the trip. Senior copywriter Shilpi Dey and senior art director Raj Thakkar will compete in Audio. Art directors Shabbir and Shruti Negi will go head-to-head with the world’s best in Design. The finals take place at the Cairns Convention Centre from 13th May, culminating in an awards ceremony on 15th May.
The work that got them there is worth examining. For the Audio category, Dey and Thakkar tackled a brief for LIVE LIKE MMAD with a campaign called Inner Voice, Interrupted. Using spatial audio techniques, the campaign recreates the overwhelming self-doubt that descends after a long workday, physically panning negative thoughts left and right before cutting the noise entirely to reveal a confident inner voice. Strategically targeted at commuters via Spotify during evening rush hours, the campaign reframes the hours after work as an opportunity for personal growth and charitable action.
For the Design category, Shabbir and Negi worked on a brief for Canteen’s Bandanna Day, a campaign highlighting how cancer pushes teenagers out of their own defining moments. Using a pixelated design language to create stark contrast between a blurred world of isolation and a focused world of connection, the campaign, titled The Flipside of Cancer, shows teenagers fading into the background of birthdays, skateparks and school proms. As a Canteen bandanna appears, the blur flips and the teenager snaps back into sharp focus.
Kalpesh Patankar, group chief creative officer of VML India, made no attempt to disguise his satisfaction. “We are immensely proud to see our teams consistently excel on the Cairns Hatchlings platform since its inception,” he said. “They have masterfully tackled challenging briefs across diverse categories, demonstrating both layered storytelling and a unique creative approach. This exceptional teamwork is truly inspiring.”
Dey and Thakkar, returning to the finals after last year’s run, were candid about the demands of the audio medium. “It’s one of the most demanding mediums, where we only have a few seconds to capture a listener’s world with sound alone, so absolute clarity is essential,” they said. “The true measure of creative work is its ability to create positive change, and our audio submission was made to help those who need it most while encouraging people to silence the inner voices that hold them back.”
Shabbir and Negi, competing in Design for the first time, described the experience as “a completely different beast.” “We see it as an opportunity to showcase our expertise, raise the bar, and challenge ourselves in new ways, while also learning from creative minds from across the globe,” they said.
In Australia, the four finalists will face a live 24-hour brief from the United Nations before presenting in a live pitch session. Twenty-four hours, one brief, one shot. VML India has been here before. It knows exactly what is at stake.
