In 2015, two lifestyle diseases, Psoriasis and Asthma, plagued Vishal Gupta’s health. Gupta tried various forms of medicine, but nothing worked. He then turned to Ayurveda, the ancient Indian medical system, and the results, he says, were “miraculous.”
Gupta is the former chief operating officer at Binny Bansal-backed digital insurance startup Acko.
“I saw similar results for several of my family members which deepened my belief in Ayurveda,” Gupta told Moneycontrol. In his quest to learn more about Aurveda, Gupta came across the Indian medicine system’s effects in curing menstrual health issues.
In 2019, after raising a seed round from Fireside Ventures of $1 million, Gupta and his partner Rachana Gupta started up Gynoveda, a women's healthcare brand that sells Ayurvedic medicines to treat female disorders like Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) - a condition in which the ovaries produce an abnormally large amount of androgens or male hormones, irregular periods and infertility.
This comes at a time when conversations around menstrual well-being are still considered taboo in parts of the country.
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Latest funding round, growth plans
The husband-wife duo, along with gynecologist Dr Aarati Patil, on March 15, raised $10 million in Series A funding led by India Alternatives to double down on research and development, launch new ayurvedic offerings, and increase brand awareness.
The funding will also help Gynoveda hire talent to boost growth. Currently, the company said a team of over 50 takes care of ayurveda, technology, content, and community for women’s healthcare.
“We want to build a lean team. While we grow three times, we estimate our team size to double in that period,” Vishal Gupta, the chief executive officer of Gynoveda, said.
With the fresh funding, the company also plans to open offline stores, it said without specifying a timeline. Gynoveda currently uses only D2C (Direct-to-Customer) channels like its website and e-commerce marketplaces.
“About 80 percent of our business comes from our own website and the remaining 20 percent comes from Amazon, Flipkart, and Nykaa, apart from a few other marketplaces so we are widely available in the online space,” Gupta said.
As of now, the company has delivered over 400,000 orders across 20,000 pin codes in more than 50 cities. Now, Gupta believes it is time for the company to involve doctors and pharmacies as it targets business-to-business channels to boost growth.
Mission to change women’s lives
“Gynoveda tripled its revenue year-on-year between FY20 and FY23 to reach a ₹100 crore annual revenue run rate within 3 years of its inception. Gynoveda is on a mission to change the lives of 1 million women, which is still a fraction of the billion women worldwide that need this unique ayurvedic solution," Gupta added.
Shivani Bhasin Sachdeva, founder, managing director and chief executive officer of the India Alternatives Private Equity Fund, believes the investment fits in perfectly with the PE firm’s investment themes of women and health.
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“Today, over 40 percent of online shoppers are women, up from 10 percent a few years ago. Women’s health globally is an underserved market. We are proud to back a company that uses an age-old science like Ayurveda in a new format to provide solutions for this large addressable market,” Sachdeva added.
The funding round also saw participation by Wipro Enterprises, RPG Ventures, Dharampal Satyapal Ltd, and Alteria Capital, among others. Existing investor Fireside Ventures also participated in this round.
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