Our Story

Young man reading on his laptop

The journey started when one of us stumbled upon a news report that read, "Vetiver farmers in Kerala hit hard by the covid crisis". At that point, vetiver was just a nostalgic term for team Solumera. We were a bunch of Kerala-bred techies living in different parts of the world. But vetiver was something that was a core detail of all our childhoods, and the numerous health benefits associated with it was age-old wisdom passed down the generations within our Malayali families.

Newspaper article about struggling farmers

But the thought about how these vetiver farmers might be faring, never once crossed our mind until one of us chanced upon that headline on an otherwise routine day. Something spurred him on to dig deep. He asked a few of his childhood best friends to jump on a video call the same night. That night, we listened to him speak with pure passion, illuminated by a raging fire within him. Needless to say, that fire spread to the rest of us, and team Solumera was born.

Months of research and ground work later, we had identified the one who could help us pull this off. He goes by the name 'Chandrettan', a local legend of sorts, he's an artist who has lived and breathed vetiver all his life and single handedly supported the vetiver growing community through its struggles. And we still remember his words from our first conversation, when translated means "Lads, my only aim is to get vetiver and its benefits across to as many corners of the world as possible, the world hasn't seen something with such potent and life-changing properties".

Dried vetiver roots stored on a brick ledge

We knew at that moment that Chandrettan was the one to lead this revolution with three objectives at its core -


1) Alleviate the struggles of the vetiver growing community and help them return to their former glory.
2) Get vetiver and its magical benefits, which have been enjoyed by Indians for many generations, across to the rest of the world. Too special a recipe for well-being not to be shared.
3) Usher in a new era of going back to our ancestors' way of life; an era of harmoniously co-existing with the planet. 

More hours, days, and months passed, and here we are! Solumera's here to take each and every one of us back to our roots, a holistic and sustainable way of life powered by the ever-potent and fulfilling vetiver roots.

Feel free to book a meeting with our revolutionary-in-chief to know more about the struggles of the vetiver growing community in case you want to help.

MEET CHANDRETTAN

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