Tifit is a D2C beverage brand started by Jyoti Bhardwaj for those who are struggling like her when she started to sweeten her own health.

As she prepares herself to change Jyoti's fate by adopting a healthy lifestyle, Jyoti finds that the outside world is full of unhealthy food options. Needless to say, drinks (soft drinks, energy drinks, juices) can not be trusted at all because of the high sugar content.

Jyoti took this as a challenge and thought of ways to address it by making healthy and natural beverage options available. Studying the market, Jyoti found that several beverage brands were already in the market to solve the problem, but only struggled to meet the market as the number of customers was low.

Though Jyothi wanted to start a similar venture, she couldn't muster the courage to look at the market conditions as many brands at that time had either failed to establish their presence or had been acquired by big companies. Startups like Teavibe and Jadarest also struggled but eventually survived.

Jyoti Bhardwaj tracked the industry until 2019, when a Japan-inspired idea finally hit the market with Zero Sugar Bottled Tea.

After Covid, people have become more health conscious. The year 2021 saw the launch of TeaFit, a health-focused sugar-free beverage brand. The brand's product portfolio includes iced teas and tea premixes made from tea leaves originating from Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Kerala.

The start-up's popularity was boosted by the appearance of Shark Tank in India last year. Before the show, the founder said it had earned Rs 15 lakh in fiscal 2022. However, after appearing on the show, the startup's revenue rose to Rs 90 lakh in FY23 and claims to have earned a revenue of Rs 3.4 crore, which they hope to double by the end of the current financial year.

Jyoti launched the brand with an initial batch of 2,000 bottles, which are available at seven Nature's Basket stores in Mumbai. They invested most of the budget on product development and Ayurveda formulation, leaving little money for further retail expansion. Moreover, there were doubts about online sales for beverages due to low order volume and high shipping costs, so they decided to limit the brand to Nature's Basket stores in the first months. While the founder thought that product development and putting the product on the shelves of Nature's Basket was enough, the company realized that there were still many miles to go.

That realization was that the brand could only sell 6-8 teffit bottles in the second wave of 2021. Jyoti realized it was time to pivot and turned her attention to online sales through her website. The startup also ventured into pharmacy stores, but largely refrained from investing in offline. In 2023, the startup launched itself on quick commerce platforms including Amazon, BigBasket, 7-Eleven, Septo, and Blinkit. Currently, 30% of its sales come from offline channels and 70% from online channels. In addition to focusing on the startup's distribution strategy, Jyoti has made several iterations of the products.

With a total of 11 SKUs in its portfolio currently, the brand offers a range of ready-to-drink products such as lemon tea, peach green tea, and barley tea. The rest are pre-mixed sachets, including ginger, matcha latte and safron tea - all prepared using the brand's own tea extract. All of its products are zero-sugar, with no sweeteners or fillers.