Reverse Pitch | There is now a growing and broader awareness about living healthy: Deepak Gupta
India is home to the largest population suffering from lifestyle diseases such as obesity, hypertension, and diabetes
At WEH Ventures, we have been investing in the seed stage across multiple sectors over the past three years. As we go through this journey, we are beginning to zero in on themes we find interesting for future investments. One theme that resonates with us is wellness/healthier living. This encompasses the gamut of offerings taken up by users to live healthier lives. While earlier attempts were focused on specific outcomes, there is now a growing and broader awareness about living healthy, which is driving a wide swathe of opportunities.
India is home to the largest population suffering from lifestyle diseases such as obesity, hypertension, and diabetes. The popularity of yoga and natural ingredient-based products in the west over the past couple of decades and more recently traction of apps/products such as Calm/Peloton has made this more acceptable to Indian millennials. Social media has further amplified this awareness as looking good is now important, as is consuming healthy food. Also venture backed brands in certain categories such as Epigamia, Cult.Fit have now reached critical mass and brought a chunk of users into the orbit of a healthier lifestyle with an understanding of what it entails.
For many of these categories there is now a more channel throughput available than was the case five years ago through Swiggy, Dunzo, BigBasket, and new-age pharmacy chains. Early-stage examples include Noto (low-cal ice cream), Sarva-Yoga (new-age yoga studios), Nutty Yogi (healthier atta), Carmesi (natural fibre sanitary pads). Many of these opportunities have the potential to have very significant repeat behaviour leading to high lifetime values. The medium can be a product, service or combo opportunities, delivered online/offline or via omnichannel. Niche categories may need a strong consultative/guidance element to establish the concept in the early days. We are happy to explore interesting offerings and back a few firms that will drive healthier living choices at scale over the next several years.
Deepak Gupta,Managing partner at WEH Ventures
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