Consumer nutrition platform HealthKart, on December 5, said it has raised $135 million in a series H funding round led by Temasek. The company said A91 Partners and Kae Capital also participated in the round which seems rather sizeable at a time when the startup ecosystem struggles with a funding winter.
In a statement, the company said it will use the capital raised for the growth of in-house D2C (direct-to-consumer) brands, increase offline distribution, expand international operations, and make select acquisitions.
Founded in 2011 by Prashant Tandon and Sameer Maheshwari, the Gurgaon-headquartered firm sells protein supplements and health accessories.
“We are delighted to partner with Temasek and A91 Partners.. Driving fitness and preventive health by addressing the nutritional gaps is a systemic trend that is taking off in a big way in India. With HealthKart’s R&D (research and development) capabilities and omnichannel distribution infrastructure, we are excited to lead the way,” said Maheshwari, who is also the chief executive officer (CEO) of HealthKart.
HealthKart said its products are used by over a million consumers monthly and are distributed across channels like its website healthkart.com, other D2C websites, offline grocers/ chemists, over 140 HealthKart offline stores, and other eCommerce and quick commerce platforms.
In 2015, Healthkart's generic drug search business HealthkartPlus was spun off and renamed 1MG - one of the newly minted unicorns of 2022. Since then, Healthkart and 1MG have been operating as separate entities.
“...It is a digital-first pioneer which has successfully transitioned into an omnichannel business and achieved market leadership in the past five years in the segments it operates in. We are excited to support Sameer and his team as they double down on their core offering, and expand the health and supplement basket to new categories (high protein food) and new customers (kids),” said VT Bharadwaj, A91 Partners.
HealthKart said it has an annual revenue run rate of over Rs 1,000 crore with brands like MuscleBlaze, a sports nutrition brand, and HKVitals, an online health supplement brand.
The company claimed while MuscleBlaze owns a 25 percent market share of India’s sports nutrition market, HKVitals has a 20 percent share of the online health supplement market.
The company added that Avendus Capital acted as the financial advisors to HealthKart for the transaction.
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