Epiq Capital, Unilever Ventures join Curefit’s Series D round

Health and fitness startup Curefit has closed a $120 million Series D round (about Rs 832 crore at current exchange rate) of equity and debt funding that saw new investors Epiq Capital, Unilever Ventures, Innoven Capital, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and Kris Gopalakrishnan family office. Gopalakrishnan is one of the founders of information technology firm Infosys.

The round was led by Chiratae Ventures (formerly IDG Ventures India), Accel, Kalaari Capital and Oaktree Capital, said a statement from the platform owned by Cure Fit Healthcare Pvt. Ltd.

Recently, filings with the companies’ registrar revealed that Curefit, founded by Myntra co-founder Mukesh Bansal and former Flipkart executive Ankit Nagori, had raised $75 million (Rs 520 crore) in its Series D round of funding from existing and new investors.

Accel led the investment with $30 million, Kalaari with $10 million and Chiratae with $8.38 million.

New investors that contributed to the funding round included Epiq Capital Advisors Pvt. Ltd, an investment firm floated by Matrix Partners India founding member Rishi Navani; Schroder Adveq Holding AG vice-chairman and founder Bruno Raschle; Pratithi Investment Trust; The McGovern Family Trust; Castle Investments; Satyadharma Investments; Makan Family Trust; the Anand Piramal Trust; Nitin Kumar Agarwal; and Sydney-based Barrijag Pty. Ltd representing the Hadley Family Trust.

The $75 million fundraising came within a year of Curefit having raised $120 million as part of its Series C funding round from existing investors Chiratae Ventures, Accel and Kalaari Capital in July last year. Oaktree Capital, whose portfolio company Fitness First India was in the process of being merged with Curefit’s fitness brand Cultfit, had also contributed to the round.

Multiple media reports from UAE-based publications earlier this week said that the firm has opened its first overseas fitness centre under Cultfit brand in Palm Strip Mall, Dubai.

“Health habits of consumers have changed over the past few years and the need for a new tech-driven approach is a need for a much better consumer experience…Leveraging deep tech and strong on-ground network, we aspire to service over 100 million consumers over the next 10 years,” Bansal stated.

News of the Series D round closure comes amid media reports of deal talks between Japan’s SoftBank and Curefit. The Japanese tech conglomerate may invest up to $350 million.

Curefit

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

Eatfit is a subscription-based food delivery vertical while Mindfit focuses on yoga and meditation. The latest offering Carefit offers a digital platform for doctors and health checkups.

The company claims to have around 500,000 active subscribers across various offerings with strong cross-usage among services. Curefit has over 180 Cultfit centres and 35 Mindfit centres. 

Also, Eatfit is delivering 35,000 meals per day now.  

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

Curefit’s total expenditure jumped nearly six-fold to Rs 120.3 crore from Rs 21.9 crore.

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

In April 2019, it acquired cold-pressed juice brand Rejoov for an undisclosed sum.

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

In May last year, it bought premium gym chain Fitness First India.

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