Mumbai-based Wellthy Therapeutics Pvt Ltd, which operates a mobile-based diabetes management platform, has raised an undisclosed sum from early-stage investor GrowX Ventures, a person directly in the know told VCCircle.
It is not clear whether this is the company’s seed round of funding as GrowX Ventures typically makes early and seed stage investments.
The company previously received an undisclosed amount from Mumbai-based Design Capital Ventures LLP, which counts Cleartrip’s co-founder Hrush Bhatt as one of its partners, another person aware of the development said.
While both GrowX Ventures and Wellthy said that they were in talks with each other, they did not elaborate on the specifics of the fundraise.
“GrowX Ventures believes in supporting firms with potential, and as such, we have a diverse portfolio of passionate and driven organisations that we have become a part of. Wellthy Therapeutics is one such organisation that we are looking closely into since diabetes is a huge public health concern in India and Asia, and we believe digital therapeutics is the future of chronic disease management. However, it is too early for us to furnish any details regarding our plans for them,†Ashish Taneja, co-founder of GrowX Ventures, said in an e-mail response.
“While we are currently in conversation with GrowX Ventures, the discussions are at a nascent stage and it is too premature for us to comment on any specifics,†Abhishek Shah, co-founder and chief executive of Wellthy, said in an e-mailed response.
The company was founded in December 2015 by Shah along with Prayat Shah, Maaz Sheikh and Mayuresh Joshi. However, according to a recent YourStory report, the company formally launched operations only in January 2017.
The company essentially offers a mobile app, which prescribes a diabetes control programme for its users through a series of interventions that include a personalised nutrition plan and a dedicated health coach. Diabetics can also monitor their blood sugar levels through frequent logs into the app and use it to get customised data-driven consultations from a doctor.
The app, which is currently available only for Android users, has seen more than 1,000 installs, according to information available on the Google Play Store page of the app.
An alumnus from the Indian School of Business and Georgia Institute of Technology, Abhishek was earlier vice-president at Ronnie Screwvala’s family investment office, Unilazer Ventures and oversaw early-stage investments in e-commerce, big data, logistics tech, food tech, agri tech, and ad tech, his Linkedin account shows.
Prior to that, he was associated with UTV, Screwvala’s media and entertainment venture, which was acquired by Walt Disney. In that assignment, he spearheaded all initiatives related to the digital business and was a part of the Chairman and group CEO’s office. In the interim, he also had a brief stint at VC firm Lightbox.
Prayat is also an alumnus from ISB and is the vice-president of partnerships at Wellthy. His earlier professional stints include KPMG, Nielsen, and PwC Consulting.
Sheikh, also part of the founding team, is a medical doctor and is the vice-president of product and clinical innovation at the two-year-old startup. Prior to Wellthy, he was associated with the University of Oxford, The Georgia Institute for Global Health and the Harvard School of Public Health, where he helped establish healthcare programmes and initiatives.
Joshi, the fourth co-founder of the venture, heads technology at Wellthy. He was previously tech lead at Twitter-acquired customer engagement platform ZipDial.
Other healthcare bets that GrowX made this year include Doxper, an app that helps doctors maintain patients’ medical records. In August, the startup raised $750,000 (Rs 4.8 crore approximately) in seed funding led by Vidal Healthcare and GrowX Ventures.
