Brand Promise

Herveda Botanicals is an all natural skincare brand that scientifically formulates exclusive, luxurious and highly effective products using himalayan herbs and latest innovation in skincare industry. Herveda Botanicals’ products were brought to the market after more than 4 years of research and development (R&D) on medicinal and aromatic plants of Nepal, their associations with traditional and indigenous knowledge, and the skin care secrets embedded in the alternative medicinal practices like Ayurveda and Aamchi practiced in the region for thousands of years.

Herveda Botanicals was started with the goal of adding value to highly potent herbs of Nepal using scientific and technological interventions, while supporting the communities involved in farming and collection of such herbs to solve various problems in medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs) value chain and to strengthen the innovation ecosystem in Nepal.  It was founded (as an innovation spin-off of Catalyst Technology) by Dr. Prativa Pandey, who is a nationally and internationally awarded research scientist and a science entrepreneur. Her academic training includes Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry, and Management and Leadership certificates from the top-ranked US Universities, with more than a decade of research experience in academic and industrial settings in the US, Singapore and Nepal.

Dr. Pandey returned to Nepal from the US in 2015 after a devastating earthquake in Nepal. She started exploring different parts of Nepal to understand the context more deeply instead of imposing predetermined solutions. She was fascinated by the beneficial properties of MAPs of Nepal and saw gaps in the MAPs value chain at various levels – lack of coordination among farmers and distributors/traders, 4-5 middle-persons, unfair distribution of profit, weak value and supply chain, lack of value addition, and so on. In all these systemic level challenges, she saw huge unharnessed potential for value addition through research and product development. Thus, she started doing research on MAPs of Nepal and covered various regions of Nepal – Surkhet, Nepalgunj, Mustang, Myagdi, Mugu, Birgunj, etc. It also exposed her to many traditional and indigenous practices, medicinal practices and practitioners – like Ayurveda, Aamchi and she delved deeper into the topic.

She also saw issues with the cosmetic and skincare industry like use of harmful chemicals, lack of regulations, creation of distorted and unrealistic perception of beauty, lacking business ethics and innovation, export of herbal raw materials at very low price, and large dependency on import of skincare products. Thus, after more than 4 years of research on MAPs and skincare products through Catalyst Technology, Dr. Pandey formally founded Herveda Botanicals in 2019 to bring the best of nature to the consumers in the form of innovative and effective products.