HealthCare Startup CureFit Secures $25 Mn From Accel Partners, Kalaari Capital, Others

Healthcare and wellness startup CureFit has raised $25 million in a fresh round of funding from existing investors Accel Partners; Kalaari Capital; IDG Ventures; a joint investment vehicle of the University of California, UC-RNT fund and Ratan Tata's RNT Associates.

According to the ET, the new round is expected to go up to $35-40 million in the next six months. Further reports state that CureFit founders, who had earlier pooled $5 million into the company, also pumped in more money in this round.

As per the founders, the startup will utilize freshly infuse fund to expand Cult centers to other cities, starting with Gurgaon in October, and will also look to add a new product around medical check-ups and primary healthcare under the Care.fit brand by early 2018.

Founded in 2016 by Myntra co-founder Mukesh Bansal and former Flipkart executive Ankit Nagori, CureFit is a platform to power healthy lifestyle and holistic cure across fitness, food, and mental well-being. It guides users in developing healthy habits and enables easy fulfillment of all health needs by removing any and every friction in the process.  CureFit operates in both online-offline model of fitness centers in Bengaluru which is called Cult.

Talking about its funding, in 2016, the startup had raised $15 million in one of the largest early-stage rounds in the Indian startup ecosystem.

Apart from the four venture capital funds, the startup had also earlier raised money from Gokul Rajaram of US-based payments firm Square, Dropbox’s Aditya Agarwal, and Shishir Mehrotra, former YouTube executive.

In July 2017, CureFit had announced the acquisition of Bangalore’s leading yoga brand – a1000yoga. This acquisition consolidates CureFit’s offering in the fitness segment and is a leap towards establishing their existing brand CultFit as the largest, one-of-its-kind holistic fitness training facility in Bangalore by the end of this year.

Health-Tech Startup CureFit Makes Its Third Acquisition, Buys Bangalore’s Yoga Brand a1000yoga

Cure.fit, India’s unique healthcare and wellness startup brand announced the acquisition of Bangalore’s leading yoga brand - a1000yoga. This acquisition consolidates Cure.fit’s offering in the fitness segment and is a leap towards establishing their existing brand Cult.fit as the largest, one-of-its-kind holistic fitness training facility in Bangalore by the end of this year. a1000yoga centres will be re-launched to incorporate the expansive offerings in the Cult.fit portfolio, while a1000yoga clients will get access to CULT’s workout offerings : Zumba, Strength and Conditioning, Yoga.

a1000yoga is Cure.fit’s third acquisition for their fitness vertical in less than a year after CULT and Tribe Fitness Centres, thereby complementing the brand’s philosophy of providing complete fitness through a combination of unique workouts without equipments. a1000yoga was established in 2011 by renowned yoga teacher Pradeep Sattwmaya with the aim of making high quality yoga education accessible and making a meaningful difference while delivering reliable and consistent quality of yogic and life affirming practices. The premier brand has centres across Indiranagar, Koramangala and Whitefield.

Commenting on the acquisition, Ankit Nagori, Founder, Cure.fit said, “We are excited to announce the acquisition of a1000yoga. Yoga is rising as one of the favored wellness choices amongst our key target group. This once thought traditional practice is now being embraced quickly as a contemporary form of wellness. a1000yoga’s depth of Yoga offerings and quality trainers will accentuate CULT’s offerings.”

Pradeep Sattwmaya, the founder of a1000yoga said “In the last 6 years, a1000yoga has built a reputation for itself in Bangalore thorough the professional and highly effective yoga service that we have provided. We are very happy to now partner with Cure.fit and take these quality offerings across India”

Founded in 2016 Cure.fit is establishing its mark as a holistic integrated healthcare platform that combines mind and body wellness in three critical dimensions - Eat.fit, Mind.fit and Cult.fit.

While Eat.fit is a subscription based, handcrafted, nutritive food delivery vertical, Cult.fit is a membership-oriented workout vertical that caters to consumers through its 10 brick and mortar centres along with do-it-yourself exercise app content. As part of its recent association with Hrithik Roshan, Cure.fit also offers HRX workouts under Cult.fit program. The third vertical Mind.fit comprises an app-based mental wellness programme that hosts expert driven stress prevention techniques.

CureFit Invests $3M in Cult - Plans to Expand to 200 Centres in 5 Years

CureFit has announced that it will be investing $3 million in Bangalore based fitness company CULT.  CULT was founded last year by a corporate professional turned fitness trainer Rishabh  Telang. Currently CULT has two offline centres and has 3 more in pipeline which will open before the end of  the year.

Mukesh Bansal, Co­Founder, CureFit, said­ “CULT has a unique training model where the trainers mix and  match various formats to deliver a holistic fitness regime. The traditional fitness formats are a thing of the  past & trainer led group classes are something which will change the face of the fitness industry."

Rishabh Telang, Founder, CULT, said­ “CULT’s vision is to create a fitness revolution in the country by  inspiring people to take up a fitness regime and a healthier lifestyle in general. With this round of funding, we  will be able to focus on expanding our footprint and use technology to provide better experience to our  customers."

CULT will continue to run as an independent company and will look to expand its reach to over 25 offline  centres by end of 2017 and 200 centres in next 5 years. CureFit, founded by Mukesh Bansal & Ankit Nagori had earlier this year announced its Series A funding of $15 million. CureFit is expected to launch its  service in Bangalore in early 2017.

The other players included in the space are BookYourGame raised an undisclosed amount of funding in June; CureJoy, secured $4.4 million in Series A led by its existing investor Accel Partners India; Play Your Sport received an undisclosed amount in pre-Series A funding from a bunch of investors led by Ashish Gupta, former chief operating officer of Evalueserve; and HealthifyMe, run by Caeruz Ventures Pvt. Ltd, raised $6 million in Series A funding from IDG Ventures India, Inventus Capital and Blume Ventures.

CureFit Invests $3M in Cult - Plans to Expand to 200 Centres in 5 Years

CureFit has announced that it will be investing $3 million in Bangalore based fitness company CULT.  CULT was founded last year by a corporate professional turned fitness trainer Rishabh  Telang. Currently CULT has two offline centres and has 3 more in pipeline which will open before the end of  the year.

Mukesh Bansal, Co­Founder, CureFit, said­ “CULT has a unique training model where the trainers mix and  match various formats to deliver a holistic fitness regime. The traditional fitness formats are a thing of the  past & trainer led group classes are something which will change the face of the fitness industry."

Rishabh Telang, Founder, CULT, said­ “CULT’s vision is to create a fitness revolution in the country by  inspiring people to take up a fitness regime and a healthier lifestyle in general. With this round of funding, we  will be able to focus on expanding our footprint and use technology to provide better experience to our  customers."

CULT will continue to run as an independent company and will look to expand its reach to over 25 offline  centres by end of 2017 and 200 centres in next 5 years. CureFit, founded by Mukesh Bansal & Ankit Nagori had earlier this year announced its Series A funding of $15 million. CureFit is expected to launch its  service in Bangalore in early 2017.

The other players included in the space are BookYourGame raised an undisclosed amount of funding in June; CureJoy, secured $4.4 million in Series A led by its existing investor Accel Partners India; Play Your Sport received an undisclosed amount in pre-Series A funding from a bunch of investors led by Ashish Gupta, former chief operating officer of Evalueserve; and HealthifyMe, run by Caeruz Ventures Pvt. Ltd, raised $6 million in Series A funding from IDG Ventures India, Inventus Capital and Blume Ventures.

Accel, IDG & Kalaari Capital Invests $15M Series A Funding In Mukesh Bansal, Ankit Nagori's Startup CureFit

Health and fitness startup CureFit which is to be launched next year, has raised $15 million in series A round from Accel Partners, IDG Ventures and Kalaari Capital, values the health and wellness startup at about $50 million. The deal also includes an investment of $3 million by Bansal himself.

The startup was launched by former Myntra and Flipkart executives Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori. The two resigned in February 2016 and teamed up to launch a startup in the area of healthcare, and sports and fitness, in March this year. CureFit will launch an app in the first half of next year that will offer preventive healthcare services. It also plans to tie up with offline health and fitness service providers such as gymnasiums. The company has hired 10 employees to work on product, technology and other functions and also expects to hire about 35-40 people by the end of this year.

All of the three investors, Kalaari, Accel and IDG, had also backed Bansal in his previous venture Myntra, the online fashion retailer that was bought by Flipkart in May 2014 in a $330 million-plus deal.

"We aim to build an innovative product, which will help consumers manage their health proactively with the use of technology and data," said Bansal, who worked at four startups in the Silicon Valley before setting up Myntra in 2007. Bansal, a computer science engineer from IIT-Kanpur, will lead the product and technology development functions while Nagori will take charge of business development and operations.

CureFit expects to offer products and solutions for preventive and curative healthcare that will combine engagement, coaching and delivery through a mix of online and offline channels.

" (It) is an end-to-end solution that will enable users to take full control of their health, improve quality of life and reduce longterm healthcare costs," said Nagori.

Healthcare startups such as Practo and 1mg are adding sport and fitness categories to boost user engagement. Just today, 1mg has announced the acquisition of Medd.in, a platform that operates a marketplace for booking diagnostic & imaging tests.