HealthifyMe raises $75 mn funding from Khosla Ventures, LeapFrog

HealthifyMe, an AI health and fitness app, has raised $75 million in a Series C round led by LeapFrog and Khosla Ventures. HealthQuad, Unilever Ventures, and Elm (Saudi Arabia PIF entity) also participated in the round along with existing investors Chiratae Ventures, Inventus Capital and Sistema Asia Capital. It takes the total capital raised by HealthifyMe to over $100 million till now. 

The company will use the funds to expand in India and Southeast Asia, make inroads into North America, as well as to acquire relevant companies in the digital health and fitness space. It will also be investing heavily behind its AI-powered HealthifySmart Plans and intends to double its current engineering and design strength. It will furthermore be hiring senior leadership members across operations, marketing, HR and technology.

"We are excited to partner with Leapfrog, Khosla Ventures and other global investors in our mission to healthify a billion people,” said Tushar Vashisht, Co-founder and CEO, HealthifyMe. “We are already the market leaders in India and Southeast Asia and by combining AI and human empathy, we can deliver results in weight and lifestyle disease management at a fraction of the cost possible today.”

According to WHO, obesity has doubled since the turn of the century and almost 40 per cent of all adults globally - 2 billion people - are overweight or obese resulting in 4 million deaths per year. Through the pandemic, the global market for digital health, weight loss and condition management grew rapidly as consumers continued to care more for their health, manage their chronic conditions and find ways to be in shape from the comfort of their homes. This has created several unicorns in the US, such as Noom, doing hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. 

HealthifyMe stayed resilient through the pandemic and has in fact doubled its user base and revenue in the last one year. It crossed 25 million downloads recently and is on track to hit  $50 million ARR (annual recurring revenue) within the next six months - becoming potentially the largest health & fitness app outside the US and China. HealthifyMe said its users have lost 20 million pounds of weight, tracked over 1 billion foods and burnt over 66 billion calories working out on HealthifyMe.

"I have been tracking HealthifyMe for a few years now. What they have achieved in India with their AI coaching solution at scale is truly pioneering for health and fitness globally,” said Vinod Khosla, founding partner at Khosla Ventures. “We are excited about the potential as they scale globally - specifically in North America, where 2 out 3 adults are overweight or obese."

While HealthifyMe's base has been India, it has been expanding internationally and now nearly 25 per cent of its revenues come from outside India. In several markets such as Malaysia, Singapore, HealthifyMe has demonstrated being able to localise its offering and establish product-market fit in local populations beyond Indian expats. It intends to replicate the same in North America in the near future.

Dr. Biju Mohandas, partner at LeapFrog and the firm’s global co-leader for Health Investments, said investing in prevention and treatment of chronic disease and underlying drivers, such as obesity, has long been a focus for LeapFrog's healthcare team. He said HealthifyMe has created a powerful intersection between health and technology that can be accessed by 760 million smartphone users from India's metropolitan cities to small rural towns.  “With our investment focused on the powerful synergy of profit with purpose, HealthifyMe will impact millions of more consumers across the world through support, education, and health services at a time when the risk to life has never been greater."