Tech entrepreneurs and investors Sashi Reddi, Amit Gupta, Pallav Nadhani and Roopa Nath have teamed up with TVS group scion Gopal Srinivasan to invest money in fitness startup HealthifyMe.
The Bengaluru-based startup allows users to track their food, exercise and weight using their smartphone and computer. It will use the money to establish their global headquarter in Singapore and expand globally. It will also use the money to hire over 1,000 nutritionists and fitness trainers. The company declined to reveal the amount raised in this round.
“It is a time when young entrepreneurs are changing the face of digital India,” said Gopal Srinivasan, managing director of TVS Capital Funds. “I am sure they (HealthifyMe) will help hundreds of million Indians find happiness through good health.” Being a third generation TVS family member, Srinivasan is also the founder and chairman of TVS Electronics and a director in TVS & Sons.
This is the second round of funding for HealthifyMe. It raised an undisclosed amount in May from Indian handset maker Micromax. The firm plans to offer applications that would allow consumers a real-time access to nutritionists, trainers and yoga instructors. The users will get diet plans, workout plans and access to an online support community.
“We are on a mission to healthify India.We are going to democratise healthy living,” said HealthifyMe chief executive Tushar Vashisht.
An alumnus of University of Pennsylvania Vashisht founded the startup in 2012 along with Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate Mathew Cherian and former Google engineer Sachin Shenoy. Vashisht and Cherian bonded over mutual fitness concerns, while working at the Unique Identification Authority of India. Cherian, a fitness enthusiast, helped Vashisht lose 15 kg in about nine months. The learning triggered them to launch HealthifyMe, that later got incubated at Microsoft Accelerator.
Till now, HealthifyMe has attracted over 1,00,000 users. The company said that it provides access to the world’s first and largest Indian food database. It has developed a calorie counter for regional foods and an exercise tracker for logging in physical activities. The firm said that it also works in partnership with health institutes like Medanta, Apollo and Manipal. There the app has been proven effective in treating and preventing clinical obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular problems and other lifestyle diseases.
“They are harnessing outstanding tech abilities to make ‘Swasth Bharat’ a reality,” said Mr. Srinivasan.
