Online fitness provider HealthifyMe has raised $6 million from Innoven Capital and existing investors. This was an extension of the $12 million it raised in February this year from Sistema Asia Fund and other new and existing investors. The startup has previously raised $6 million in May 2016, an undisclosed amount in June 2015, and an undisclosed amount from Micromax in May 2015.
The Singapore headquartered company has also launched in Malaysia. It said that it would expand to Singapore, Indonesia, and the Middle East in the next two quarters. HealthifyMe has mapped 900 Southeast Asian local foods and hired local nutritionist and fitness coaches for expansion into the region.
The firm was already catering to Indian diaspora with a focus on Middle East & Africa (MEA) and North American regions. As of now, the service exists in several Gulf countries — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman.
HealthifyMe has been wanting to expand internationally since 2015, when it raised an undisclosed amount from its investors. It had then said that the funds would be used to establish its global headquarters in Singapore and hire over 1,000 nutritionists and fitness trainers.
Online health food marketplace ‘EatBetter’ – Additionally, the startup has launched an online marketplace for health foods ‘Eat Better’ and upgraded its virtual assistant/nutritionist. EatBetter is an online marketplace for health foods whose products include health bars, breakfast cereals, cookies, roasted snacks, beverages, natural protein supplements, super seeds, dry fruits and trail mixes. These items are priced between Rs 70 and Rs 500. The platforms currently has over 500 SKUs and plans to expand to 1000 in the next 12 months.
Virtual nutritionist Ria – An upgraded version of the company’s virtual nutritionist Ria can now identify healthy and unhealthy foods from menu cards, phones and plates of food. Ria was trained with 200 million diet logs made by HealthifyMe users. It is available on Alexa, and understands five languages. HealthifyMe has also launched monthly paid “smart diet” plans beginning at Rs 299 per month and powered by Ria.
HealthifyMe was launched in 2012 by Tushar Vashisht and Sachin Shenoy and claims 8 million users 200 cities. It employs 600 people, including coaches. The company was incubated by Microsoft Accelerator, and raised $12 million from Sistema Asia Fund, with participation from other investors in February this year.
It currently offers a single Android and iOS app which helps customers keep track of their diet and workout progress, and provides them with personal trainers to create exercise and custom diet plans.
Apart from weight loss and fitness coaching, it also partners with companies and healthcare centres. The company claims to have worked with P&G, Unilever, Accenture, Cognizant, Shell, and Philips among others. Similarly, healthcare centres, including individual physicians can tie-up with HealthifyMe to offer additional services to their patients.
