Dr. Reddy’s Marks Its Ecommerce Foray With The Launch Of Celevida Wellness

Svaas Wellness, the healthtech arm of pharma major Dr. Reddy’s, on Wednesday (October 25) announced the launch of its ecommerce platform, Celevida Wellness, for diabetes patients.

The new ecommerce marketplace lists both Celevida products and other third-party brands on its website, and will be focussed on Type 2 diabetic and pre-diabetic individuals. 

Launched in 2019, Celevida is the pharma giant’s flagship nutrition brand for dietary management of diabetes. 

The new platform sells food products such as cereals, beverages, bars, biscuits, multi-vitamins and powders. Besides, it also offers personalised dietary and health information for diabetics. It eventually plans to roll out products such as on-call nutritionists and a digital diary to track a patient’s health patterns.

As per the company, the ecommerce foray will also strengthen its presence in the nutraceutical segment and help cash-in on the growing number of digital buyers in the country. 

Commenting on the launch, MV Ramana, head of branded markets for India and other emerging countries at Dr. Reddy’s, said, “We are happy to announce the launch of ‘Celevida Wellness’ as a D2C ecommerce platform by our subsidiary Svaas Wellness… With Celevida Wellness, our aim will be to learn constantly and work towards offering best-in-class consumer experience. We will also be able to create capabilities that can be scaled and replicated across markets.”

The ecommerce platform claims to currently deliver to more than 18,000 pin codes across the country and follow a stringent product selection process before onboarding products on its marketplace. 

The marketplace features third-party brands such as Diabliss and Bagrrys that cater to diabetes patients’ daily nutritional requirements through personalised dietary recommendations. 

With this, Dr. Reddy’s follows in the footsteps of digital pharmacy startups such as Netmeds and Medibuddy that have D2C offerings catering to customers. As it catches up with its digital peers, Dr. Reddy’s is looking to leverage the growing market for diabetic and pre-diabetic care as well as the growing demand for health supplements. 

As per an October ICMR study, India accounted for more than 10.1 Cr people with diabetes and 13.6 Cr persons with pre-diabetes. 

Changing consumer preferences, technological advancements, and improving access to smartphones and internet have resulted in a D2C healthcare boom in the country. The D2C brands in the country are offering a new range of products and catering to the growing number of health-conscious Indians. 

This has also invited the interest of investors who have been actively scouting for startups solving such problems. Earlier this year, healthtech startup Breathe Well-being secured funding of more than $6 Mn to help people reverse diabetes. Last year, diabetes care startup BeatO also raised $33 Mn funding in a round led by Lightrock India.