Exclusive: Omnichannel wellness store HealthKart to raise $10 mn in fresh capital

Gurugram-based Bright Lifecare Pvt. Ltd, which runs omnichannel health products store HealthKart, is raising close to $10 million (Rs 73 crore at current exchange rates) in a fresh funding round from new and existing investors, two people directly familiar with the development told TechCircle.

Existing investor Sequoia India will lead the round, putting in nearly $6 million. IIFL Alternate Asset Advisors Ltd, part of financial services conglomerate IIFL Holdings Ltd, is expected to come on board as the new investor, one of the two persons mentioned above said.

A third unidentified investor is also participating in the round, the person added.

It is not clear whether this is a new funding round or part of a larger one.

According to Sameer Maheshwari, co-founder and chief executive of the venture, the company is "still in the process of finalising the construct" for its current financing round, while e-mail queries sent to IIFL and Sequoia Capital did not elicit a response at the time of publishing this report.

According to VCCEdge, the financial and data research platform of News Corp VCCircle, HealthKart last raised around $1.01 million in July last year from Kae Capital, one of its existing investors.

However, its last publicly known major funding was in April 2016, when it had raised $12 million (Rs 80 crore then) in a Series E round from Sequoia Capital, Kae Capital and Omidyar Network. The company had raised this sum to expand its business offline.

The company’s other investors include Intel Capital and financial services group Edelweiss and individual investors like Marico founder Harsh Mariwala and MakeMyTrip founder and chief executive Deep Kalra.

HealthKart

The seven-year-old firm was founded in 2011 by Prashant Tandon and Maheshwari. It sells products across a broad range of categories such as fitness and nutrition supplements, sports nutrition, health devices, personal care, eye-care, parenting and pet care. Tandon is an MBA from Stanford University while Maheshwari has studied at Harvard Business School.

HealthKart sells products under its own private label and also retails 200 external brands and vendors on its platform. Starting out as an online-first venture, the company over time has aggressively ventured offline. It currently operates 93 stores across 36 cities and plans to set up more, according to information available on its website.

It also operates two mobile apps—HealthKart, a consumer-facing shopping app, and HealthKart Consult, which connects users with qualified nutritionists and fitness trainers who can offer personalised diet plans along with training routines to achieve fitness goals.

In 2012, HealthKart acquired online body-building and fitness supplement store Madeinhealth.com, as part of its inorganic strategy.

Tandon and Maheshwari are also co-founders of online pharmacy 1 mg, which was hived off as a separate entity in 2015. 1mg, which was earlier called HealthKart Plus, was its online drug store vertical.

For the financial year 2016-17, HealthKart’s operational revenues grew nearly 59% to Rs 120.58 crore from Rs 75.16 crore in the previous year, as per information available with VCCEdge. Likewise, gross expenditures also widened to Rs 166.41 crore, up from Rs 151.09 crore in the previous year.

However, the significant growth in operating revenues, consequently, shrunk net losses to Rs 41.91 crore, from Rs 71.80 crore in the previous year.

Recent deals in healthcare

The broader healthcare space has seen a number of firms securing funding.

Earlier this month, healthcare-focused fin-tech startup LetsMD topped up its pre-Series A funding round with an additional $1 million (Rs 7.3 crore) from early-stage investment firm Orios Venture Partners.

In September, online drug stores PharmEasy, Myra and NetMeds raised venture capital investment.

In July, full-service, subscription-based pharmacy venture Lifcare raised $11 million from IL&FS Investment Managers Ltd and existing investors SAIF Partners and Nexus Ventures .