D2C Brands Should Serve Functionality & Emotional Needs Of Consumer: Wellversed Founder Aanan Khurma

The many facets of preventive healthcare, a market expected to reach a market size of $170 Bn by 2025 — nutraceuticals, fitness equipment, wellness practices and immunity-boosting, have become a central theme post-Covid times. 

In our very first session at The D2C Dummit 2.0, we caught up with Wellversed founder Aanan Khurma and Wellversed investor and brand ambassador Yuvraj Singh, to look into the health & wellness ecosystem through the lens of a preventive healthcare startup.

Underlining the ideology associated with wellness in India, Khurma states, “Humans, by very nature, don’t have a preventive mindset. There are tangible goals at play. For example, people are not only moving towards veganism because they want to be healthy, but they want to save the planet. When choosing health brands too, individuality plays a very important role. Consumers are not just buying health products, they are buying social ideologies.”

Social trends, influencer-driven endorsements, too, play an important role in buyer decision making, he adds.

“Brands essentially need to create two values — creating functionality and serving the emotional needs of the consumer,” said Khurma

In fact, bringing Yuvraj Singh on the Wellversed board as an investor as well as a brand ambassador supported the idea of serving the functional ideology (wellness) and emotional ideology (celebrity endorsement by someone very famous for their wellness choices).

Founded by Khurma, Aditya Seth and Ripunjay Chachan in 2018, Wellversed offers nutrition regimes in intermittent fasting, veganism, diabetes, gluten-free, high-protein and immunity among others. The startup sells plans and products across weight loss, skin health, hair care and sexual health. 

Throughout the session, Khurma has been actively vocal about how Wellversed aims to serve not just health needs, but the emotional and social ideologies attached to it. Now, as the next part of its growth phase, Wellversed looks to become a “house of brands”, taking in value-creating startups (functional as well as emotional).

Underscored by social trends, especially on Instagram and TikTok, the Indian healthtech market is estimated to touch $21 Bn by 2025; and it is just 3.3% of the total addressable healthcare market pegged to reach $638 Bn in 2025. Preventive healthcare, alone, in India, is primarily driven by fitness and wellness apps and diagnostics solutions.

Featuring over 5,000+ attendees and a star-studded lineup of 100+ expert speakers, we bring to you The D2C Summit 2.0! We are hosting discussions from the D2C ecosystem — the how-tos and how-haves of building a place in the $100 Bn market.

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