Meet Dr. Shrilakshmi Desiraju
She is the CEO & Co-founder of AA Probics and Co-founder of Triphase Pharmaceuticals Pvt. Ltd. which she co-founded in ’19 and ’09 respectively.
AA Probics is a probiotic R&D company focused on probiotic applications in humans (via Food & Beverages, OTC i.e. nutraceuticals and Rx prescription) & animal (via feed additives and dietary supplements) nutrition in line with One Health concept.
AA Probics is self-funded & has served 38 customers till date that includes well-established nutraceutical companies of India. It currently manufactures nutraceutical gummies that are scientifically validated – has 6 SKUs addressing different therapeutic areas which will go up to 11 SKU by July 2023. Set up in Mysore in Oct 2022, AA Probics’ pilot manufacturing plant has a capacity of 300 Kg/day which is proposed to be expanded to 1.8 MT/day capacity by the end of 2023. Additionally, through AA Probics’ innovative and one-of-a-kind technique called Biofloc (combining Probiotics, water management, IOT in the form of Biosensors with a potential to integrate AI), the company is addressing Aquaculture’s major pain point by enhancing water quality. Discussions are underway with various State Govts to enable agricultural farmers to increase their source of income by practicing aquaculture enabled by Biofloc.
Triphase Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Shrilakshmi’s 1st entrepreneurial venture, is a probiotic R&D company that specializes in the platform technology – StrainboostTM – for high temperature stable probiotics & their application which enables them to withstand temperatures up to 200°C, thereby eliminating refrigeration cost across the supply chain. Strain boost probiotics are designed to fortify food & beverages, and are being further developed as prescription pharmaceutical products for oral health, digestion & infectious diseases.Triphase has a pilot facility in Mysore and has received patents in US (2018), Canada (2020) & 11 countries in Europe (2021) for StrainboostTM. It counts global probiotic brands of eminence as its clientele.
For its contribution, Triphase has been awarded at various national forums – Bio-Excellence Emerging Company Award 2018 by Government of Karnataka, won Economic Times Power Of Ideas 2016, Innovation Excellence Award 2015 from Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce (FKCCI) and INDIAs Small Giant Award 2014 for most promising SME. Triphase has raised around Rs. 11 crores in debt & equity capital till date.
Dr. Shrilakshmi, a 1st generation Technoprenuer, joined AA Probics as a co-founder in 2022 post exiting day-to-day operations of Triphase Pharmaceuticals of which she remains the co-founder & shareholder. Prior to founding Triphase Pharmaceuticals, she worked with NAEJA Pharmaceutical Inc., Canada for 8 years where she helped the company design & implement new sales strategies to develop its CRO business. She has topped the following degrees – B.Sc, M.Sc (Organic Chemistry), M.Phil (Natural Product Chemistry), PhD (Natural Product Chemistry) from Vikram University, Ujjain, and two post doctoral fellowships from National Chemical Laboratories, Pune and Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.
Dr. Shrilakshmi has a strong personal interest in motivating Women in STEM & innovation – has been associated with IUPAC’s gender diversity breakfast since 2021, is a mentor with TiE Women Mysuru, and has been invited to be a part of G20 B20 Women In STEM (Research, Technology and Innovation) Compendium 2.0. She has a rich publication record in numerous scientific & business publications. She has been recipient of several national & international awards -. FKCCI Women Achiever Award 2023 & 2019, Business Women of the Year 2014 by EMERG and Pfizer Award of Recognition 2005. She has also been featured on eminent platforms like TiE Mysuru, Times of India, Your Story, Dutch Uncles, Business Sight, BioSpectrum, We The City etc. She is regularly invited as a speaker & panelist at various seminars & conferences in India and abroad.
BUT…how did she get here?
Click on the video to know more!
