Spicewell was founded by serial entrepreneur Raina Kumra. Raina grew up learning about Ayurveda from her grandmother, who would mix spices and herbs together to help boost immunity or lower blood pressure. In March of 2020, Raina’s 5-year-old daughter broke her collarbone in a bike accident and wasn’t able to eat solid foods during her recovery. Raina started dehydrating and powdering vegetables to blend into smoothies for her daughter, who ended up recovering significantly faster than expected. Encouraged by the positive outcome, Raina thought to infuse powdered functional ingredients into salt and pepper — frequently-consumed household staples — to deliver vitamins and minerals in every meal.

Raina spent the next 6 months studying different spice brands, testing various recipes, and sampling them with her neighbors. She worked on identifying which vegetables had the least offensive and noticeable taste when mixed with salt and pepper. Raina ultimately invested $100,000 of her own savings into product development, partnering with renowned functional medicine experts to come up with the final formulations. Spicewell generated $10,000 in revenue in its first month alone, and the brand is continuing to turn heads as one of the first functional spice brands on the market.