Zomato’s Investment Turns Curefit Into Unicorn

On November 10, food delivery aggregator Zomato announced a slew of agreements as well as its Q2 FY22 earnings. Among noticeable agreements, the foodtech announced that it sold its fitness facility arm Fitso to fitness startup CureFit for $50 Mn.

Additionally, the startup invested another $50 Mn in CureFit. In the cross-selling, Zomato has acquired a total shareholding of 6.4% worth $100 Mn in the fitness startup.

The deal, thus, values the Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori-led company at $1.56 Bn — making it the 35th Unicorn in 2021, and 77th Unicorn overall. Recently, D2C beauty platform MyGlamm entered the coveted $1 Bn+ valuation club after raising $150 Mn in its Series D round.

Zomato and CureFit have not responded to Inc42’s queries on the valuation development.

Zomato Plans Priority Play Through Shutdowns & Divestments

In its quarterly report, Zomato outlined the need for the foodtech to focus on its core businesses viz., food ordering and delivery, dining-out, and B2B supply chain biz, Hyperpure. Thus, Zomato has shut down all of its international businesses. For a long term play in auxiliary segments, the startup is looking to back D2C startups in partnership with Shiprocket — a move similar to its backing grocery startup Grofers.

Among other auxiliary businesses, Zomato also owned sports facility centres. In January 2021, Zomato had acquired full-stack sports facilities provider and discovery startup Fitso in a deal reportedly worth INR 80 Cr – INR 100 Cr.

Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal in a blog post outlined that as Zomato is looking to divest (not just shut down) its non-core businesses. Thus, it worked out a way to stay in the fitness and wellness segment, by selling its fitness arm Fitso “to someone for whom it is core” — CureFit.

Selling Business To Core Health Player To “Cultivate Long Term Partnership”: Zomato

Founded in 2016 by Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori, CureFit uses an online-offline model to offer physical fitness (Cult.fit), mental fitness (Mind.fit), nutrition (Eat.fit), with a primary care vertical (Care.fit).

It, too, has been on an acquisition streak, with a bleak spell in 2020 where it had to lay off over 1,600 employees and scale down operations. Notable acquisitions include:

• Martial arts and holistic fitness startup Cult (through which it rebranded as Cult.fit)
• Mumbai-based fitness centre chain Tribe Fitness
• Bengaluru-based yoga chain a1000yoga
• Online healthy-food delivery company, Kristy’s Kitchen
• International fitness chain Fitness First
• Mumbai-based fitness aggregator Fitternity
• US-based fitness tech startup Onyx
• Bengaluru-based connected fitness startup, TREAD
• And now, Zomato-owned sports facility startup Fitso

“This will help us potentially explore cross-selling benefits between Zomato and Curefit, as we see food and health becoming the same side of the coin in the long term,” Goyal said in a blog post.

To date, CureFit has raised close to $460 Mn. It last raised $75 Mn from Tata Digital in June 2021, post which Bansal also joined Tata Digital as its president.

CureFit is physically present in 21 cities across India. With a franchise model leveraging Cult Centre, a Cult Gym or both, the company aims to be present in 50 cities by FY22.

According to an Inc42 Plus report titled, India’s Healthtech Landscape In A Post-Covid-19 World, the Indian healthcare market is expected to grow 4x, from $144 Bn in 2019 to $638 Bn by 2025. The report also outlined that CureFit was a leader in the healthtech segment in India.

The preventive healthcare category, which includes wellness and fitness startups, is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13% between 2020-25 and is expected to reach a market size of $170 Bn by 2024.

Some major players in the health, fitness and wellness space are startups such as Stratfit, Growfitter, Fitnapp, and HealthifyMe, HealWell24 and Malaika Arora-backed SARVA Yoga.