Rohan Mirchandani, the chief executive and co-founder of the popular yoghurt brand Epigamia, passed away on Saturday after suffering a cardiac arrest. The news was confirmed by a statement from Drums Food International, the parent company of Epigamia.
The company statement also said that co-founder and director Uday Thakker, along with COO and founding member Ankur Goel, will lead the firm with the support of the board of directors and other stakeholders, including the Mirchandani family.
Thakker and Goyal released a joint statement mourning the loss of the entrepreneur. "Rohan was our mentor, friend, and leader," they said.
Back in October this year, in the podcast ‘Brick by Brick: Building Insurgent Brands’, he recalled how in December 2011, he came back to India for a business lecture between his B-school studies in the US and got the idea to organise an “unorganised market”, all the while investing in the ice-cream brand Hokey Pokey. Mirchandani called it the “first avatar” of Drums Foods.
I am deeply saddened by the untimely passing of Rohan Mirchandani (@RoMirchandani), a visionary entrepreneur and co-founder of Epigamia (@epigamia). I had the privilege of collaborating with Rohan through the ASCENT Foundation, where his insights and enthusiasm inspired our… pic.twitter.com/GgudHoa8XI
— Harsh Mariwala (@hcmariwala) December 22, 2024
“In January 2013, I moved [to India]; I took a one-way ticket,” he said in the podcast by DSG Consumer Partners, recalling how Drums Food had three ice-cream parlours then. Mirchandani then said that he would spend most of his time there, interacting with consumers for three to four months.
“I realised [that] at the premium segment, there’s a lot of conversation going around [about] healthier eating and healthier lifestyles... conversations around proteins, clean food, [and] clean eating. And there weren’t many options available. That is where [we], sort of, unlocked that value in terms of a problem statement,” Mirchandani then explained how he positioned the brand and soft-launched it in 2015 after taking in suggestions from customers.
Mirchandani was part of the MBA class of 2012 at The Wharton School, and had a bachelor’s degree in science (specialising in finance and international business) from the NYU Stern School of Business in the US.
