CureFit raises $75 mn in round led by Accel to accelerate growth

Health and fitness startup CureFit Healthcare Pvt. Ltd. is raising $75 million (Rs 521.76 crore at current exchange rates) from a group of investors including its existing investors Accel Partners, Kalaari Capital and Chiratae Ventures (formerly IDG Ventures), filings with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs show.

A slew of new investors including Bruno Raschle, Pratithi Investment Trust, The McGovern Family Trust, Castle Investments, Satyadharma Investments, Makan Family Trust, Anand Piramal Trust, Nitin Kumar Agarwal, Sydney-based Barrijag Pty Ltd. representing the Hadley Family Trust, and Epiq Capital will participate in this round, the filings stated.  

CureFit will use the capital for growth marketing and general corporate activities of the company, its subsidiaries and joint ventures, the filings said.

Accel Partners led the round with a $30 million (Rs 207 crore) infusion while Kalaari invested $10 million (RS 60 crore) and Chiratae put in $1.78 million (Rs 12.42 crore) through IDG Ventures India Fund III.

Chiratae Ventures, which is one of the three domestic funds for which IDG Ventures acts as an adviser, invested $6.6 million (Rs 46.2 crore) through its trustee services firm Vistra ITCL. IDG Ventures India had rebranded itself to Chiratae Ventures in October last year.

Bruno Raschle, founder of asset manager Schroder Adveq, contributed $8 million (Rs 52.24 crore) while Pratithi Investment put in $5 million (Rs 35 crore) in the round.

After this round, Chiratae will hold 12.03%, Accel will own 11.48% of stake and Kalaari will increase its stake to 6.33% in the company.

CureFit was launched by Myntra co-founder Mukesh Bansal and former Flipkart executive Ankit Nagori.

In July last year, the startup had raised $120 million (around Rs 825 crore then) in a Series C round of funding.

The company formally launched the flagship CureFit mobile app in May 2017. Another offering is Cult.fit, which runs offline centres that offer equipment-less workouts including strength and conditioning exercises, spinning, boxing, mixed martial arts, zumba and yoga.

Eat.fit is its subscription-based food delivery vertical while Mind.fit focuses on yoga and meditation. Its latest offering Care.fit offers a digital platform for doctors and health checkups.

For the financial year 2017-18, its net sales jumped to Rs 24.9 crore from Rs 3.1 crore in the previous year. Net loss expanded to Rs 96.8 crore in 2017-18 from Rs 18 crore.

CureFit’s total expenditure jumped nearly six-fold to Rs 120.3 crore in 2017-18 from Rs 21.9 crore the year before.

CureFit has acquired a few businesses as part of its expansion strategy.

In April, it acquired cold-pressed juice brand Rejoov for an undisclosed sum.

In November last year, it had acquired integrated mental wellness platform Seraniti.

In May last year, it bought premium gym chain Fitness First India, which was backed by hedge fund Oaktree Capital Management.

In 2017, it acquired Bengaluru-based yoga centre a1000yoga Academy and online food delivery startup Kristys Kitchen.