Venture capital firm M&S Partners invests in parenting app Healofy

Venture capital firm M&S Partners has invested an undisclosed amount in maternity and childcare social networking platform Healofy.

Vivoiz Healthtech Private Limited, which operates the parenting app Healofy, aims to help women attain financial independence by helping them earn from home via network ecommerce, the company said in a statement.

Healofy, founded in 2016 by Gaurav Aggarwal and Shubham Maheshwari, is an Indian parenting social network for mothers. 

The peer-to-peer platform helps women connect with other like-minded women based on similar language, location and life-stage.

Healofy claims to have a community of over 500,000 daily active users (DAUs) and 1 million monthly active users (MAUs) on its android app.

It primarily caters to Indian women across tier 2, 3 and 4 cities through content in their native language. The platform has content in nine languages, including English, Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.

“At Healofy, we are committed to providing a safe and empowering online environment for women in the country. We are excited to welcome M&S Partners to be part of the journey.” said Gaurav Aggarwal, chief executive officer and co-founder, Healofy.

The Bangalore-based startup had last raised $9.5 million from Omidyar Network India, BabyTree Group, BAce Capital, which is a fund backed by Alibaba’s Ant Financial Services Group, and other angel investors, the statement added.

“The societal impact Healofy is having is immense and has resonated strongly with its users," said Hiro Mashita, director, M&S Partners.

Healofy’s founders Aggarwal and Maheshwari are alumni of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati and National Institute of Technology (NIT) Warangal respectively. The startup initially focused on women’s critical-health content like conception, pregnancy and post-pregnancy care.