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Armed with an extended Series B funding, health and fitness platform start-up HealthifyMe plans to enter emerging markets. It kick started this with a move into South-East Asia and West Asia.
HealthifyMe has raised an extended Series B funding from InnoVen Capital, a Singapore-based venture capital firm, in addition to existing investors such as Sistema Asia Fund (India focussed fund of the Russian conglomerate), Inventus Capital, Blume Ventures, Samsung NEXT and IDG Ventures India.
“With a total of $18 million that we raised in 2018, our ambitions are to go global. As a part of that journey, we have decided to go to Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia,” said Tushar Vashisht, Co founder and CEO, HealthifyMe. He added that the start-up will launch operations in the Middle East in the next six months. There are plans to enter Latin America and Eastern Europe.
HealthifyMe will take the India play book to international markets. As an example, Vashisht points to the growing obesity problem in South-East Asia due to sedentary and changing lifestyle habits.
AI-based diet plan
However, a majority of people are interested in a healthy lifestyle and with a 294 million smartphone base, HealthifyMe is hoping that its app can answer a lot of questions.
The start-up has been answering such questions in India and says that it has 80 lakh users taking nutrition advice. It has a mix of free and subscription-based services. Subscribers can avail help from an AI chatbot called Ria for diet plans, weight loss and other nutrition-related queries.
Around one lakh are paid users, who shelled out anywhere between ₹999 and ₹1,699 per month earlier. Now HealthifyMe has launched a subscription plan for ₹299 a month, which Vashisht pointed out as the world’s first AI-based automated diet plan.
“So, from consuming a gobi paratha to a South Indian thali, a person can take a photograph of the meal and by using image recognition technologies, it will provide information of the total calorie count,” noted Vashisht. Similarly, one can also ask for food, based on health conditions such as diabetes.
“More than 20 per cent of our revenues are coming from international geographies,” Vashisht said. The health-tech start-up has also added a curated food marketplace and has tied up with 50 health food providers such as health bars, protein supplements, in addition to a catalogue curated by its nutritionists, which now number in hundreds.
The start-up has 600 employees (which includes nutritionists, coaches) and a presence in 200 cities in the country.
HealthifyMe has a 10 per cent market share in the health/fitness category, in India, as per AppAnnie. Its users have tracked 200 million foods, workouts and exchanged 10 million messages with their nutritionists and trainers.
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