Kiran Mazumdar Shaw invests in women’s health platform Gytree.com

Image Credits: Vantage Fit.

Women’s health platform Gytree.com on January 11 raised funding led by Biocon's Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Rainmatter Investments, former chief executive officer of Aditya Birla Capital Ajay Srinivasan, and Anubhuti Sharma of San Francisco-based Millie Clinic among others.

"We will be using the funds to offer more diverse health services for women, adding more health tools for women's dashboard and scaling and expanding services focussed on women in the workplace," Swarnima Bhattacharya, chief product officer of Gytree told Moneycontrol.

The startup said the maiden funding round will help build and grow the platform at a time when working women in India increasingly quit the workforce due to health-related issues. Gytree, however, did not disclose the amount raised.

Founded by Shaili Chopra, Gytree uses technology to provide women with a dashboard, experts, and personalised care for better health outcomes. The virtual platform gives consumers services around the core offering of gynaecology, including mental health support, nutrition counseling, and regular digital health checks, the company said.

Chopra is an entrepreneur who has also founded a platform for women called SheThePeople, backed by Anand Mahindra. The company said the demand for women’s health solutions and Gytree.com emerged from within the 20 million-strong community at SheThePeople.

“What Indian women need is a 360-degree approach to care, due to inter-related symptoms and outcomes. At Gytree, they not only get access from anywhere, anytime but are also able to discuss personal and intimate health details in a safe and discreet environment,” said Chopra.

CPO Bhattacharya added that the company is evaluating both B2B (business-to-business) and B2C (business-to-consumer) models for organisations that intend to retain female talent by providing better healthcare for their female employees.

According to the National Health Portal of India, more than 32 million women in India suffer from incurable conditions ranging from PCOS to endometriosis, and infertility. Gytree.com said it would provide assistance with symptom identification, timely diagnosis, and long-term management of such conditions.

“We need to build female-first products in health and for way too long India has ignored that. Gytree.com fills an important gap in using technology to solve for personalised health needs of women through products and services. I am delighted to lend support to Shaili and her team on this purposeful journey,” said Biocon’s Shaw.

According to Gytree, the platform is built by a core team of women who understand the needs of those who identify as female. While Bhattacharya has experience working in healthcare and women focussed policy for over a decade with the UN (United Nations), WHO (World Health Organization), and others, Sudeshna Ray, who is a doctor with over 30 years of experience in obstetrics and gynaecology, is the platform’s medical director.

"I am excited by femtech as a sector and believe solutions targeted at getting women to lead better lives will scale up and drive growth. Usage of tech can help make solutions more affordable and universal, something India's 600 million plus women need immediately," said an investor in Gytree and former CEO of Aditya Birla Capital, Ajay Srinivasan.