Companies
Healthify maps a global run amid profit chase
Summary
- The company is looking to expand to 20 markets, including the US and the UK, by the end of the year, by when it expects to be profitable at the Ebitda level, according to founder and CEO Tushar Vashisht
BENGALURU : Health-tech startup Healthify expects its India business to turn operationally profitable by the end of the year, alongside its expansion to the US, the UK, and other international markets.
The Bengaluru-based startup, which has raised about $130 million in total from investors such as LeapFrog and Khosla Ventures, is aiming to turn profitable at the Ebitda level amid a broader push for better unit economics and profits, even for growth-oriented startups.
The startup decreased its losses from ₹157 crore in FY22 to ₹142 crore in FY23, as its revenue increased from ₹185 crore to ₹229 crore.
“Our focus will be to turn our investments and burn towards our global prospects," said Tushar Vashisht, founder and CEO of Healthify. “There we'll continue to burn some capital, but the India business’ path and journey now is to be fully profitable at an Ebitda level."
He added that the company’s mission and charter was evolving rapidly.
“From being an Indian company now, chances are we'll be a heavily global company before FY25 ends. Even our models are going to emerge and evolve. The US, UK, and Middle East are definitely on our radar, and then we're looking at some other geographies as well."
On whether the company plans to raise funds to fuel its global expansion, he said, “I think raising more capital will be valuable and it's something that we're contemplating. I intend to speak to my board about it at the next board meeting."
Founded in 2012, Healthify is a fitness app that offers personalised meal plans, wellness coaching, calorie tracking and workout plans, among other services. It competes with fitness startup Cult Fit, which is also eyeing profitability by FY25. Other startups in the space include FITTR and GOQii.
The company, Vashisht said, is also looking to tap the (business-to-business) market.
“Rather than being a pure consumer company, we have tremendous interest from various partners including global leaders in pharma, health tech, connected fitness and insurance who want to licence our technology for their markets," Vashisht said. "I don't know how those circumstances will play out. It's possible that we will become a B2B-dominant, global business."
On AI initiatives, Vashisht said the company was looking to build an integrated ecosystem on its app by partnering with gyms, meditation centres and doctors. In December the company partnered with Swiggy to help customers order diet-aligned meals. “We want to make sure that we have at least 10 partners live on the app before July," Vashisht said.
Explaining how such an ecosystem would work, Vashisht said, “Suppose Ria (Healthify’s AI nutritionist) or your coach has built a workout plan for you and one of them is 30-minute cardio on alternate days. Now, instead of just giving you advice, it can also look at which gyms around you have 30-minute cardio classes. It will know [your schedule] through your calendar, and if you’re interested it will actually book those sessions for you."
The company, which claims to have more than 40 million users, has also started using technology from OpenAI to enhance its AI features, he added.
