SoftBank Looking To Back Cure.Fit In First Healthtech Investment In India

Japanese investment firm SoftBank is reportedly in talks to invest in Indian fitness and wellness startup Cure.Fit.

The deal is said to be in the early stages of discussion, with the parties still negotiating on the amount of investment. According to a news report that cited three sources, the capital raise will be somewhere between $200 Mn – $350 Mn. “The plan for this round of funding is to take Cure.Fit global,” a source told ET.

An Inc42 query sent to Cure.Fit did not elicit a response till the time of publication.

Till date, Cure.Fit has raised about $245 Mn over multiple rounds. Existing investors in the company include IDG Ventures, Accel Partners, Bollywood actor Hrithik Roshan, Piramal Group’s Anand Piramal and Kalaari Capital.

The Bengaluru-based startup was founded by Myntra cofounder Mukesh Bansal and former Flipkart executive Ankit Nagori in 2016, to solve the problems in the fitness, nutrition and mental wellbeing space with a focus on technology. Cure.Fit 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.

Currently, Cure.Fit claims to have over 180 Cult centres and around 31-35  Mind.Fit centres spread across six Indian cities including Mumbai, Chennai, Jaipur, Bengaluru, Delhi NCR, and Hyderabad. The company is aimed at expanding its geographical presence to 50 Indian cities with 800 centres by 2020. 

Softbank’s Investments In India

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 include Stratfit, Growfitter, Fitnapp, and HealthifyMe.

If SoftBank does invest in Cure.Fit, it would be the conglomerate’s first investment in the healthtech and fitness tech space in India. The Masayoshi Son-led group has invested around $10 Bn so far in Indian startups. Some of SoftBank’s key investments in India include Ola, OYO, Hike, Paytm, FirstCry, Grofers, Delhivery, Automation Anywhere, and Paytm Mall.

The investment firm has witnessed an 80% year-on-year growth in its operating income for FY 2019. SoftBank had attributed this growth to an unrealised gain of about $12.5 Bn from its investments in ride-hailing company Uber, Indian hospitality company OYO and other portfolio companies.

Overall, its investments in Flipkart and OYO paid off with a gain of $2.7 Bn, split between realised and unrealised gains.

Earlier this week, SoftBank was also reported to be eyeing an investment in the Indian foodtech unicorn Swiggy.

At the company’s recent earnings call, Son reiterated the group’s commitment towards the global startup ecosystem. He also shared an ambitious plan for the firm’s portfolio and said, SoftBank’s portfolio could potentially grow 33-times to reach a $1.8 Tn valuation in the next two decades. SoftBank Group’s earnings before interest and taxes (EBITDA) has crossed over $18.5 Bn (2 Tn JPY) in FY18. Son attributed this growth to its technology focused investment corpus SoftBank Vision Fund.