Bengaluru-based mobile health platform HealthifyMe has raised $6 Mn in an extended Series B funding round which is a mix of both equity and debt.
The round witnessed participation from existing investors such as Sistema Asia Fund which is the venture capital fund of Russian conglomerate Sistema JSFC, US-based early stage VC Samsung NEXT, Chiratae Ventures, Inventus Capital, Blume Ventures and Innoven Capital.
The startup which was founded in 2012 by Tushar Vashisht and Sachin Shenoy, had raised $12 Mn in the Series B round in February 2018. Till date, it has raised a total of $25 Mn in over seven funding rounds.
HealthifyMe is a mobile application which uses both artificial intelligence and suggestions from a group of nutritionists and trainers to help users to track their calories, nutrition, and fitness activities. It also helps its users to focus on their eating habits, fitness, and weight through lifestyle tracking.
Expansion In Southeast Asia On Cards
The company will use the newly raised funds to expand its presence in the international market. After launching operations in Malaysia, it is now planning to begin its operations in other Southeast Asian markets such as Singapore, Indonesia and the Middle East in the next six months.
Tushar Vashisht, cofounder and CEO, HealthifyMe said, “Our foray into Southeast Asia is an effort to offer a highly localised and curated experience to users there, offering the same level of depth in terms of food library, quality of coaches and technology support, that our users in India enjoy.”
In order to achieve its expansion targets, HealthifyMe has recently taken following measures:
- Have built a library of more than 900 South-East Asian local foods with accurate protein, fibre, carbohydrate & calorie mapping.
- Have hired a team of local nutritionist and fitness coaches who will help in developing personalised diet and fitness plans for its South-East Asian users.
- Announced its plans to launch curated online foods marketplace named EatBetter which specialises in healthy and wholesome food items.
- Unveiled the new version of Ria, the artificial intelligence powered virtual nutritionist which was initially launched in 2018. Named as Ria 2.0 can now not only listen and read, but also see and identify healthy and unhealthy foods from menu cards, phone screens and entire plates of food.
According to reports, Ria 2.0 has been in pilot mode over the last two months and has recorded over three lakh members. HealthifyMe has reportedly recorded an annualised revenue run rate of $4.5 Mn for FY18. It is further aiming to achieve a revenue run rate of $10 Mn for FY19.
According to an IBEF report, the Indian healthcare industry is expected to reach $280 Bn by 2020 from the current $100 Bn.
Some of the other major players in this space are Curefit, Grow Fit, LiveHealth, Niramai, Stratfit, Growfitter, Fitnapp among many others.