For Anu Parmar, founder and CEO of Moong Pani, the journey to building a thriving food business began in her childhood home, where drinking mung bean broth was a daily ritual rooted in Ayurveda, the ancient Indian science of health and longevity.
“I did not have tea or coffee until I was about 13,” Parmar recalls. “Mung broth was our family’s favorite hot drink. My mother believed that gut health is real health and made sure our diet was packed with protein and gentle fiber.” As a mother, Parmar continued the tradition, making broth every morning for her children.
The transformation from family tradition to commercial enterprise came unexpectedly. In 2013, while hosting wellness retreats in Canada, Parmar made large batches of the plant-based broth for 80 to 100 attendees, who loved the drink as an alternative to coffees and teas. Her mentor’s encouragement proved decisive: “Take this liquid broth, find a way to make it into a powder, and take it to the world.”
In 2019, Parmar spent 10 months working with food scientists and business accelerators to transform her kitchen recipe into a shelf-stable, commercially scalable product. She was ready to launch the business, but the timing of the launch in March 2020 seemed doomed.
“We launched our website, launched our product, and literally four days later, everything shut down,” Parmar explained. “So I’m proud to say that we are a COVID surviving business.”
The company now owns a manufacturing facility in Mississauga, Ontario, with a small dedicated team. The company produces six flavors of its Moong Pani Golden Broths and has expanded into complementary quick-cook meals that support gut health, protein absorption, and immunity. Wellness clinics in Canada and the U.S. now offer Moong Pani broths and meals to clients. The business also sells its products in 350+ retail stores across Canada.
When Moong Pani started selling it products in the Amazon store in the U.S. and Canada, traction was slow. The company’s Amazon journey accelerated when Parmar hired Deepak Patel as marketing manager in April 2024. He quickly realized it wasn’t their product that was the problem, it was really that their Amazon presence lacked strategic optimization.
“It’s such a unique product and I’ve seen a lot of opportunity in that particular category,” Patel shared. “In a few months, we grew our sales five times on Amazon.”
Patel focused on improving Moong Pani’s product listings and planning targeted ad campaigns. He leveraged Amazon’s Brand Analytics to improve product listings with keywords based on what health-conscious consumers searched for, making the unique product more discoverable. The team also used A/B testing extensively to refine listings and imagery.
Brand Analytics uncovered crucial insights about repeat customer purchase behavior. Many shoppers reordered every two months, so they then offered Subscribe and Save, with refined pricing incentives. Amazon Ad campaigns, guided by AI-powered audience insights, helped reach health-conscious consumers across key U.S. markets.
They also learned from customer reviews diverse use cases: marathon runners using the broth as a recovery drink, people with digestive sensitivities finding relief, and healthcare workers with limited time for full meals. “I’ve had reviews where people say they have IBS or very delicate guts, where they’re not able to eat many things, but broths have been able to sustain them,” Parmar noted.
Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), which provides storage, picking, packing, fulfillment, and customer service, helped Moong Pani further expand in the U.S. Prior to FBA, shipping directly to U.S. customers from Canada was challenging, with deliveries taking two to three weeks. “Amazon had to be our channel where we can deliver products quickly within 24 to 48 hours and cost effectively,” Parmar explained.
Moong Pani is now planning expansion beyond North America, with Amazon serving as the testing ground for new markets. The company is exploring opportunities in Europe, the Middle East, and Australia.
“Amazon was our entry into the U.S., and there’s no doubt about it, it gave us data on what the demand is like at the consumer level,” Parmar said. “I think it’s a faster way to test our market, and if it’s successful, it’s faster to then develop that channel.”
For Parmar, the mission remains rooted in the comfort and nourishment she experienced as a child. “My vision and mission is to bring comfort and energy to our customers,” she reflected. She also wants to help build a foundation for Canadian manufacturing. “I hope entrepreneurs like myself inspire others and we help build a foundation for Canada as a strong manufacturing hub globally.”