Fitness tracking startup HealthifyMe raises $12 mn led by Sistema Asia

Fitness and health-tracking app HealthifyMe has raised USD 12 million in Series B funding led by Sistema Asia Fund.

Investors such as Samsung NEXT, Singapore’s Atlas Asset Management, and Japan’s Dream Incubator also participated in the round alongside the existing investors.

HealthifyMe is Samsung NEXT’s first investment in an Indian startup. “HealthifyMe is working to solve a major problem in India, a country where obesity is a growing concern. Indians are increasingly looking for ways to improve their health, as trends around wearable sales and gym memberships there show,” Amit Garg, Principal, at Samsung NEXT said in this blogpost.

Launched in 2012 as a calorie counter app by Tushar Vashisht, Sachin Shenoy, and Mathew Cherian, the company has so far raised close to USD 19.2 million in venture funding, including this round.

The company will use the majority of the funds to expand and go deeper into international markets – namely, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. It’s also looking to upgrade its AI and data science capabilities and expand its management team in India.

The startup competes with other fitness apps such as FeetApart, MobieFit, and Obino. Fitness startups such as Goqii also provide wellness coaching through an app and a wearable.

HealthifyMe offers a calorie counter feature specific to Indian meals.

Western-made nutrition tracker apps typically do not include a breakdown of nutrition information that works with Indian food habits.

The company monetizes by offering weight-loss programs and then connecting participants with over 150 nutritionists and fitness coaches for online consultations.

It claims that its programs are effective in the prevention of lifestyle diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and hypertension.

The app claims to have more than a million active users out of total 4 million registered users. It claims to be booking about USD 4.5 million in revenues on an annualised run rate basis.

The startup had raised USD 6 million in May 2016 led by IDG Ventures India, Inventus Capital, and Blume Ventures. The company also has had angel investors such as Kunal Bajaj, Sashi Reddy, Neelesh Bhatnagar and Gopal Srinivasan.

In 2015, the company also raised a seed round from Micromax Informatics.