Curefit Gets New Funding From Chiratae, Accel, Kalaari, Others

Fitness startup Curefit has raised a total of $120 Mn Series D round in equity and debt funding. The round was led by Chiratae Ventures, Accel Partners, Kalaari Capital, and Oaktree Capital, who are all existing investors in the company. 

New investors including Unilever Ventures, Epiq Capital, Innoven Capital, and Kotak Mahindra Bank also participated in the round. Curefit will use these fresh funds to boost its expansion plans in India and abroad.

Commenting on the fundraise, founder of Curefit, Mukesh Bansal said, “Health habits of consumers has changed over the past few years and the need for new tech driven approach is a need for a much better consumer experience. Curefit has created a unique platform and category to help meet this demand and to become the go to destination for all health needs for India. Leveraging deep tech and strong on-ground network, we aspire to service over 100 Mn consumers over next 10 years”.

Till date, Curefit has raised about $365 Mn over multiple funding rounds. Last month, the company had last raised $75 Mn from Piramal Group’s Anand Piramal, Accel Growth, Kalaari Capital, IDG Ventures India. 

The Bengaluru-based startup was founded by Myntra cofounder Bansal and former Flipkart executive Ankit Nagori in 2016 and 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) coming soon. Curefit’s app enables bookings for its classes through a smartphone app, where users can sign up for new classes or sessions.

Over the years, the Hrithik Roshan-backed startup has adopted an acquisition-led strategy to expand and scale its platform. For instance, Cult was acquired by the company in August 2016 for $3 Mn. Since then, it has acquired startups such as Tribe Fitness, Seraniti, Kristys Kitchen, and a1000yoga.

Currently, the company claims to have over 180 Cult physical fitness centres and around 35 Mind.Fit centres spread across six Indian cities including Mumbai, Chennai, Jaipur, Bengaluru, Delhi NCR, and Hyderabad. It’s looking to expand to 50 Indian cities with 800 centres by 2020. 

Earlier this week, the company had also announced its foray into international market with the launch of its Dubai centre. 

Sudhir Sethi, founder of Chiratae Ventures said,  “Curefit in its last three years blazed to India’s dominant fitness and health tech player. Now with the Dubai operations, it’s well poised to take the unique offering to international markets. Another Indian consumer brand going global”.

Further, the company claimed to to have 500K active Curefit subscribers along with Eat.fit servicing over 35K meals per day.

Earlier this week, Curefit was reported to be in talks with Softbank for a $200-$350 Mn investment deal. However, the Japanese investment firm has not participated in this round. 

The global wellness market is estimated to be at $4.2 Tn. According to a FICCI and EY report, the Indian wellness market is predicted to reach about INR 1.5 Tn by FY20. Some major players in the health, fitness and wellness space are startups such as Stratfit, Growfitter, Fitnapp, and HealthifyMe.

Fitness startups have also attracted attention from national and international celebrities. Recently last week, SARVA had raised about $6 Mn – $8 Mn from a global icon Jennifer Lopez, baseball player Alex Rodriguez, Indian Bollywood actress Malaika Arora, and fitness brand Zumba.

Recently in April, Bengaluru-based digital healthcare startup mfine had raised $17.2 Mn in a Series B funding round from SBI Investment, SBI Ven Capital, BEENEXT and others.