Cure.fit plans expansion in India to go global in 2019, says Mukesh Bansal

Cure.fit, a health tech and wellness start-up promoted by Mukesh Bansal, founder of Myntra, and former Flipkart top executive Ankit Nagori, on Monday raised $120 million, one of the biggest early-stage funding in recent time. In a conversation with Bibhu Ranjan Mishra and Debasis Mohapatra, Bansal says the firm is on an expansion spree in India and will go global in 2019. Edited excerpts:

What does this funding round mean for you?

This is our third round, which is one of the largest early-stage funding in the country. This shows the traction we have been able to see in the last two years with health being a massive consumer category. Because of our early traction in this segment, investors are excited about our firm.

You were confident a couple of months back you won’t immediately go for a fresh round of funding, and if required may go for a debt funding. What changed since then?

We had raised around $15 million of debt earlier. The reason behind this round of fund raising is there is a lot of interest in this category and all our four products are working well. The funds raised will help us accelerate our expansion plan. We are present in three cities with a small presence in Mumbai. Today, our maximum presence is in Bengaluru and we will significantly accelerate our presence in all upper and medium cites in the next 12 months. We will also look at some acquisitions in health space.

What is your expansion plans for Care.fit, your newest vertical that focuses on primary healthcare space, and the other three segments?

Last month, we launched Care.fit in Bangalore. Over the next six months, we will fine-tune our product offerings and improve the customer experience. In terms of reach, Cult.fit (company’s membership-oriented workout vertical) has maximum presence with 60 centres and we are opening 5-6 new centres every week. Eat.fit has also scaled up pretty well. It is doing around 10,000 orders every day and is doubling every three months. So, it is the fastest-growing category. Mind.fit has got seven centres and we are opening one or two centres every month.

What is the valuation of the company post this round of fund raising?

I don't want to comment on valuation aspect.

Will you need further funding post this round or internal accruals will be able to sustain the future growth?

It's difficult to comment on that. The way we are building up our business, it is operationally profitable. Cult is highly profitable and food is also meeting the economies of scale. We want to invest in few areas such as building offline centres, which needs capital expenditure. We also want to build a national brand, and invest in the platforms which will play a crucial role for our growth. In the first 4-5 years, it is all about building an outstanding product, which will be globally competitive, and at some point, we want take these products beyond India as well.

What's the time horizon you are looking at for taking these platforms global?

Within 1-2 years, we will definitely look at expanding beyond India. As our product profiles become more matured, our aspirations are definitely to be a global company. It is just a matter of time. So I can say that sometime around 2019, when we will be able to look beyond India.

What is the revenue from operations now?

Revenue wise, we are doing $4 million a month which makes up to around $50 million per annum. But, it is growing very fast. We are seeing almost 50 per cent growth every quarter.