D2C Health Brand Wellbeing Nutrition Raises Series A Led By Fireside Ventures

D2C health supplements and nutraceutical brand Wellbeing Nutrition has raised $2.2 Mn in its Series A funding round, led by Fireside Ventures. The round also saw participation from ACG, one of the world’s leading providers of integrated solutions for pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industries.

The Mumbai-based company stated that the funds would be primarily utilised to strengthen research and development, and create nutraceuticals based on its proprietary ‘Advanced Nano’ technology that can be consumed as oral strips or effervescent tablets. It will also use the funds to hire more talent and spend towards marketing its products.

Prior to this round, in September 2020, Wellbeing Nutrition raised a $400K angel round with participation from investors such as Roha Group, Ashutosh Valani and Priyank Shah, the cofounders of Beardo, Nikhil Gandhi, ex-TikTok India CEO, Harsh Vardhan Bhandari, and Jeenendra Bhandari.

Founded in 2019 by Avnish Chhabria, the startup was launched with the aim of providing organic, non-genetically modified vitamins and minerals that are not chemically synthesised. So far, Wellbeing claims to have grown 40% month-on-month with retail presence across 600+ stores in India while also exporting to markets such as UAE, UK, Germany, and USA. The brand is available on ecommerce marketplaces including Amazon India and also has a strong D2C channel with sales from its website.

“Nutraceutical and dietary supplements space has witnessed unprecedented growth post the pandemic. We saw an increase in demand for our innovative and carefully designed research-driven products. As we enter the next phase of growth and innovation, we look forward to benefiting from Fireside and ACG’s pedigree, collective experience, and resources in helping us scale, ” said founder Chabria.

Post funding, Kannan Sitaram, venture partner at Fireside Ventures will join the company’s board. “Healthy India is a big consumer theme and today consumers want to invest in their everyday wellness. The nutritional supplements space is attracting a lot of interest from millennial consumers who are making considered choices on what they eat and how they look after their physical and mental health,” said Kannan.

The occurrence of the Covid19 pandemic has increased the health consciousness of the average consumer. According to a Redseer report, the number of health-conscious individuals (HCI) in India was 90 Mn in 2018 and is expected to grow by 1.4 times to reach 130 Mn by 2022.

In general, the role and importance of immunity has skyrocketed within the past 16 months. A recent survey found that in the month of June,2020,  over 92% medicine bills were for immunity boosters. Moreover, as per Assocham, India’s nutraceuticals market is projected to grow from $4 Bn in 2017 to $18 Bn in 2025.

Estimates indicate that the spend on nutrition, healthy foods, functional foods and supplements is expected to quadruple to over $50 Bn in the next decade, growing at 17% CAGR. Experts believe that India’s expertise in the pharmaceutical manufacturing and food processing sectors, availability of raw materials, deep rooted culture of herbal-based nutrition can be leveraged to make India a global powerhouse in the nutritional technology space.

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