Healthifyme Wellness Products And Services Pvt. Ltd, which runs health and fitness app HealthifyMe, has raised $12 million (around Rs 77 crore) in a Series B round of funding from a clutch of investors led by Russia’s Sistema Asia Fund.
The Bengaluru-based company said at a press conference on Friday that its other new backers include Silicon Valley-based Samsung NEXT, Singapore’s Atlas Asset Management and Japan’s Dream Incubator. Existing investors IDG Ventures India, Inventus Capital, Blume Ventures and Dubai-based NB Ventures also participated in the round.
Founded in 2012 by Tushar Vashisht, Mathew Cherian and Sachin Shenoy, HealthifyMe claims to be the first app to introduce calorie tracking of Indian dishes and provides real-time insights and automated analytics on an individual’s health. The company employs more than 350 people.
The platform also offers trainers and nutritionists to help meet customised health goals. It recently launched a service called Ria, which it says is the world’s first artificial intelligence-powered fitness coach.
HealthifyMe said it will use the money to deepen its presence by offering health foods, diagnostics and insurance products beyond its digital nutrition and fitness services portfolio.
The startup also plans to enter other emerging markets. It already has a big presence in the Middle East and South East Asia, predominantly among the Indian diaspora, and gets a quarter of its revenue from these overseas markets. Additionally, the company intends to use the funds to further its artificial intelligence and data science capabilities.
HealthifyMe said that it has reached an annual revenue run rate of $5 million. It currently has five million downloads, four million registered users and a million monthly active users. Its paid subscribers, which number in the thousands, get access to nutritionists.
"Around 50% of our paid subscribers renew our subscription and when they do it, they move on to a higher plan. Hence our revenue retention of paid subscribers goes up to 90% apart from new paid subscriber acquisition. We hope to touch hundred thousand paid subscribers later this year," Vashisht said.
The Rainmaker Group advised HealthifyMe on the transaction, the term sheet for which was signed in October last year.
“We were impressed with the sheer amount of data the company has gathered, including the database of Indian foods,†said Amit Garg, principal at Samsung NEXT Ventures.
HealthifyMe had in May 2016 raised $6 million (around Rs 40 crore then) in Series A funding from IDG Ventures India, Inventus Capital and Blume Ventures.
In June 2015, HealthifyMe had raised an undisclosed amount in pre-Series A funding from a group of individual investors.
Sistema Asia Fund is a $50-million venture capital fund that was floated by Russian conglomerate Sistema JSFC in 2016.
Kirill Kozhevnikov, managing director and partner at Sistema Asia Fund Advisors, told VCCircle last November that the fund would expand its India investment mandate and will also look at Series A stage deals. It has thus far been actively investing at the Series B stage.
