STORY: Alumna Tackling Women’s Health in India through Science-Backed Supplements
Ananya Agarwal ’12 is founder and CEO of Nyumi, a high-quality gummy vitamin brand for women.
Ananya Agarwal ’12 credits the design thinking approach and entrepreneurial spirit she honed at Olin for helping build the foundation she needed to found Nyumi, an India-based vitamin company that produces high-quality, clinically proven gummies for women.
“I knew as far back as high school that I wanted to start my own company one day, but before I got there, I wanted to study engineering and learn as much as possible,” says Agarwal, who was part of the college’s first international cohort. “My father and I attended Candidates’ Weekend at Olin, and it was 100 percent clear that it was my dream school. I knew that I’d learn more and gain more skills as an independent person here than I would anywhere else.”
Headshot of Ananya Agarwal ’12, founder and CEO of Nyumi.
After graduating from Olin and obtaining her MBA from Harvard Business School, Agarwal was working for mental health support and meditation app Headspace in Los Angeles when she had two important realizations.
“One, microchanges you make in your life—such as 10 minutes of daily meditation—can have a compounding positive effect on you,” says Agarwal. “And two, a lot of our Headspace users were struggling with sleep. One of the best solutions is to take a supplement to correct vitamin deficiencies or trigger sleep signals; however, some people can be very apprehensive about taking pills or other medications because they’re unsure of the side effects.”
When she returned to her native India, she realized the problem ran even deeper: Her home country’s culture was suspicious of supplements in general, in part because they felt too much like medicine. In fact, she learned that more than 70 percent of urban Indian women have vitamin deficiencies, which can also lead to a rise in infant mortality rates.
Agarwal realized that if she wanted to help people, she’d have to fundamentally change the way users approached this category.
“With Nyumi, I wanted to create something tasty rather than a pill you had to swallow—something that you keep on your dresser and not in the medicine cabinet,” says Agarwal. “The vitamin industry can be very murky because you can write whatever you want on bottle, so we wanted to be completely transparent with our ingredients and trials so that our users can trust the science and believe the promises we’re making to them.”
Nyumi gummies for hair, skin, sleep and iron combine traditional Indian wellness philosophies with Western ingredients into something that is easy to take and tastes good. Many Nyumi customers are first-time supplement users who feel like they can trust the brand.
“The vision and mission behind Nyumi is fundamentally rooted in Olin’s approach—how do I make the world better in some way?” says Agarwal. “I am committed to the notion of leveraging science to make the best product I can for people.”
Nyumi currently ships throughout India, and Agarwal’s long-term goal is to expand internationally.
“When I think about all my life experiences, if I had to pick one place that’s molded me the most, it would be Olin,” says Agarwal. “It fundamentally shaped me, the way I run my business, and the way I think as a person. Olin enables you to be so uniquely yourself, and in turn, that value became a foundation in me as well.”