⚡ How this Start-Up is Reinventing South-Asian Snacks

Morning Innovators ⚡ In less than 5 minutes, we’ll cover…

🥳 The best funding opportunities, events and jobs in the Start-Up world this week
📰 This week’s biggest news stories in the Start-Up world
🥫 How is this Start-Up is reinventing South-Asian snacks?
🚦 How you can jump on someone else’s traffic
📧 A tool that helps you improve your investor outreach

✨ Last weeks most clicked link was this link taking you through to connect with the GP of Upside VC, who are looking to write cheques of £100k - £500k into ConsumerTech companies.

Happy hustling,

Rich

🎤 Opportunities + Events

🏆 Santander have launched their annual Santander X awards, with £135,000 in funding up for grabs - apply here!

💰 Zeal have just raised an $82m fund to invest in FinTech, Healthcare and Future of Work Start-Ups at Seed/Pre-Seed - submit your deck here!

💸 Verb Ventures have closed a new €25m fund to back Seed to Series A B2B marketplaces and Data companies, you can contact the team here!

We now have a community of thousands of Start-Ups and Founders, here are the hottest Start-Up job opportunities from the Innovators Uncensored community on our very own Start-Ups Job Board!

💼 Start-Up Jobs

✍️ Commercial Operating Partner, RevvedUp
🧑‍💻 Software Engineer (Android), Bioliberty
🛠 Senior Backend Software Engineer, dot on

🪲 Ÿnsect faces mass layoffs and partial shutdown of flagship factory. Sifted

🤔 Samsung may incorporate Perplexity’s AI tech in its phones. TechCrunch

📲 Google quietly released an app that lets you download and run AI models locally. TechCrunch
 
 🤦 Wise switches primary listing to US in a blow to London. UKTN

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On first glance, this just looks like another poster thats been poorly stuck on to any old lamp post. Whilst that’s exactly what it is, it also couldn’t be further from this. Etoile make make-up bags, but there is a limit on how exciting a make-up bag can be. So, when they saw how much hype the make-up brand Summer Fridays was getting, they knew they had to jump on it.

So, when Summer Fridays did a pop-up event in New York City, Etoile were very much there. Throughout the entirety of the weekend, the queue for the Summer Fridays was wrapped around the block, with hundreds of people lining up at any given time. Naturally, with hundreds of people buying make-up, Etoile had to find a way of getting their make-up bags in there. So, they plastered the surrounding area with posters of their make-up bags with Summer Fridays products in.

This is a super low cost way of getting in front of your target customers, that also doesn’t require much effort!

Whilst it may be cheeky, could you hijack someone else’s event?

Each week we highlight our favourite tools - either something we’ve been using in our businesses, or tools that our innovator community have recommended.

Fundraising Playbooks is your shortcut to investor meetings, replies, and term sheets, without the guesswork or spray & pray. You can access your private library of what actually works in fundraising - proven moves that Founders used in real-life to raise millions.

Curry Smugglers: Cans of Chaos, Reinventing South Asian Snacks with a Wink

Curry Smugglers Snacks isn’t your average corner shop nibble. Born in Margate, the brand is flipping the script on how British-Asian snacks show up on shelves - literally!

Founded by Steve and his wife Ruby, Curry Smugglers packs classic South Asian favourites like Bombay Mix, Pakora, and Chakli into beer cans. Yes, cans.

Why? Because it’s unexpected. Because it sparks joy. And because, frankly, those boring plastic bags with sad branding never did the food justice.

It’s snack culture reimagined, with humour, heritage, and 100% recyclable packaging.

From Kitchen Chats to Cans on Shelves

Steve didn’t find his Co-Founder on LinkedIn. He found her in his own kitchen.

Ruby and Steve had always shared a love of food - and spreadsheets. One evening, over both, the idea for Curry Smugglers was born. What started as a joke about “smuggling snacks in cans” quickly turned serious. The duo realised there was a gap in the market for bold South Asian snacks that felt fresh, fun, and culturally rooted.

Running a business as a couple? Equal parts laughter, logistics, and the occasional disagreement over chilli levels.

Markets, QR Codes, and a Margate Pop-Up That Changed Everything

They launched the way many great food brands do - on the ground and face-to-face.

Setting up stalls across Kent, they turned up with cans, confidence, and absolutely no idea how the public would react. The result? Curiosity, confusion… and then conversion. People were into it. The cans turned heads, but it was the flavour that kept them coming back.

A local Margate bar let them run an early pop-up, and that was the spark that lit their first loyal community. Instagram and a humble QR code helped build the brand’s first mailing list, one can at a time.

From Indie Taprooms to Selfridges - With a Lot of Hustle in Between

Scaling Curry Smugglers was never going to be about mass supermarket listings. Instead, Steve focused on independent breweries and shops that got it - places where personality matters just as much as product.

A few key taproom partnerships gave them momentum. But then came Selfridges.

Seeing their cans in one of the UK’s most iconic department stores was the real turning point. It proved there was space for playful, culturally grounded snacks in premium retail - and gave the team confidence to push harder on e-commerce and brand partnerships.

“Own Your Weird” and Other Lessons in Standing Out

Early on, Steve admits they over-explained. Were they drinks? Were they snacks? Were they drunk?

Now? They let the product speak for itself.

The real learning? Visual identity matters. Story matters. But sampling wins hearts, and authenticity wins repeat customers. You can’t shortcut that.

Bootstrapped, Bold - and Crowdfunding Next

So far, Curry Smugglers has been proudly bootstrapped - funded from personal savings, resourceful suppliers, and sheer hustle. The first runs were made using second-hand equipment and self-designed packaging. The team learned to stretch every penny and still make it look slick.

Now, they’re prepping for their first crowdfund in June - a chance to bring their community in properly, scale production, and expand the brand without losing their soul.

Cans Confused Everyone, At First

The biggest struggle? Getting people to understand that the cans weren’t a gimmick - they were the point.

Steve recalls early meetings with buyers who thought they were launching a line of drinks. The original cans were oversized, which didn’t help. But instead of pivoting away, they doubled down - refining the format and tightening the messaging until it clicked.

That moment of confusion? It's now part of the brand’s charm.

Biggest Lessons: Start Scrappy, Stay True

Steve’s advice to other Founders?

• Start before you’re ready

• Sell it before you scale it

• Talk to real people, not personas

He says their early customers, met at markets and events, are still their biggest cheerleaders. If they were starting again, he’d worry less about being “retail-ready” and more about getting cans in hands from day one.

What’s Next for Curry Smugglers?

With a community behind them, a growing number of retail partners, and a fresh round of crowdfunding on the horizon, Curry Smugglers is poised for its next leap.

It’s not just about snacks in cans. It’s about telling a new kind of British-Asian story - one that’s loud, proud, and deliciously different.

Next week I’ll be highlighting another awesome Start-Up, as well as sharing all the usuals including funding opportunities, Start-Up news, plus plenty of awesome tips, tricks and tools.

P.S. Connect with me on LinkedIn…