Healthtech Startup Breathe Well-being Secures $6 Mn+ To Help People Reverse Diabetes

Gurugram-based diabetes reversal healthtech startup Breathe Well-being has raised $6.14 Mn (INR 50 Cr) in a Pre-Series B round co-led by 3One4 Capital, Accel and General Catalyst. 

FounderBank Capital and Supermorpheus also took part in the funding round. The startup plans to use the funds to strengthen its coaching academy, expand core team, and scale up its technology platform to enhance customer experience. 

Founded in 2020, by Rohan Verma (ex-McKinsey) and Aditya Kaicker (ex-Accenture), Breathe Well-being helps people prevent, manage and reverse Type 2 Diabetes. According to the startup, it offers an easy but effective alternative to medicines to achieve these. 

The startup claims its clinically proven digital program uses a personalised coach driven, community first approach through interactive gamification to help people with Type 2 Diabetes reduce HbA1c, lose weight and reduce medication dependability.

 The Breathe team firmly believes that medication is not a long-term solution for diabetes and instead focuses on behavioural and lifestyle changes for diabetes reversal and reducing the risk of chronic lifestyle diseases.

Rohan Verma, cofounder & CEO, Breathe Well-being said, “India is the diabetes capital of the world and we are on a mission to change that. Our aim is a Diabetes Mukt Bharat (Diabetes Free India) with the aim to reverse diabetes for 1 Million Indians by 2025 and we are well on track to achieve that goal. Referral is our strongest growth lever especially in non-metros and more than half our customers come through word of mouth.”

Breathe said its program has a proven outcome with 95%+ participants showing an average reduction of 1.5% in their HbA1c levels, 98%+ participants eliminating medication and experiencing an average weight loss of 5.5 kg over the course of the program which has been recognised by the American Diabetes Association (ADA).

In the long term, Breathe aims to extend its digital therapeutic offerings to other chronic conditions, including hypertension, PCOS, gut disorders, etc.

Sharing thoughts, Radhika Ananth, vice president, Accel said, “We have been impressed by how quickly Breathe Well-being is becoming a household name for Type 2 Diabetes & Pre-Diabetes Reversal across Tier 2 and 3 cities of India. I realised the true value of what Rohan and Aditya are building at Breathe Well-being after seeing my own mother go through the program and reduce her HbA1c levels significantly. Hence Accel invested and we continue to back them in their vision of building a Diabetes Mukt Bharat.”

Breathe Well-being operates with the likes of startups such as Fitterfly, BeatO, Aarca Research, Zyla to name a few. 

We’ve reported about BeatO’s raising of $33 Mn in November 2022. The round was led by Lightrock India with participation from Flipkart Ventures and Healthquad, among others. Whereas, Fitterfly raised $12 Mn in July last year. The Series A round was led by Amazon Smbhav Venture Fund and Fireside Ventures. 

The healthtech segment has been a part of the ongoing startup layoffs. Going with the unfortunate trend of this, we’ve reported that Healthifyme laid off 150 employees in December. Then we have another healthtech startup Innovaccer laying off 90 employees in September, another name MFine too fired 600 employees. Even Breathe too laid off 50 employees last year June to optimise cost. 

Although these reports paint the healthtech segment in a dark shade, however, all’s not lost. As per an Inc42 report, India’s healthtech ecosystem is estimated to reach a $21 Bn market size by 2025. Of all the segments in the healthtech space, Healthcare SaaS is set to become the fastest-growing vertical.