Genmedic Healthcare Pvt Ltd, which makes vegetarian nutritional supplements under the Super Gummy brand, on Wednesday said it has raised an undisclosed amount from ad-for-equity investment arm of media firm Bennett, Coleman and Company Ltd (BCCL), Brand Capital.
Existing angel investor Corbin Wood, a US-based branding expert, also made a "sizeable investment" in the company, Genmedic Healthcare said in a statement.
The company, which was set up in 2013, develops vegetarian nutritional supplements in the form of gummy bears. It has so far launched four products and four more are in the process of development, the company said. Advisory firm Elbrus Capital was the sole adviser to the transaction, it added.
“Nutritional supplementation in a format that tastes great, represents one of the single greatest opportunities to have a materially positive impact on overall health and wellness," said Wood. "While the category is small, it is growing quickly and Super Gummy in a very short period has already become the leading nutritional gummy supplement in India,†he added.
The products are available in retail chains including Hyper City, Spar, MedPlus, Apollo and Frank Ross.
Genmedic Healthcare, the brainchild of Amarnath Reddy and Swathi Meghraj, will also be launching products catering to pre-/post-natal and women’s health this year, it added.
Reddy, who is managing director of the company, started his career as an IT professional with Infosys and has been an entrepreneur for the last eight years, according to his LinkedIn profile.
India's dietary supplements market is estimated at about $2 billion and is likely to almost double to $4 billion by 2020, a study released in 2015 by industry body Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) jointly with business consulting firm RNCOS showed.
Although Brand Capital invests in lieu of ad space across BCCL's media publications, including The Times of India and The Economic Times, it also invests a small amount as cash in some portfolio firms. Its investments are largely in consumer-facing ventures and it uses ad as a currency to pick stakes.
BCCL also runs online realty listing portal MagicBricks, which competes with various firms including PropTiger. News Corp, the parent of this news website, owns a stake in PropTiger.
Recent investments by Brand Capital include that in Atreya Resorts for Traditional Healing Pvt. Ltd, which provides health and wellness services under its Arth Ayurveda brand.
Like this report? Sign up for our daily newsletter to get our top reports.