Everyone wants to have a fit body, especially after the COVID-19 impacted the overall health system across the world but it is somehow not an easily achievable task for every person. In the modern era, when people don’t have enough time to spend on their health and wellness, it is indeed a tough job to maintain a good physique. To solve this problem, founders of HealthifyMe, Tushar Vashisht, Sachin Shenoy and Mathew Cherian launched a platform that allows its users to keep track of their diet and exercise regime, take expert advice and connect to other fitness enthusiasts thus equipping them to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Having said that, let’s discuss the inspiring journey of HealthifyMe and its founders.
How Did It Begin?
Before launching HealthifyMe, Tushar Vashisht worked with Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) for nearly two years. Karnal-born entrepreneur, who graduated from University of Pennsylvania, returned to his homeland after a stint as an analyst with Deutsche Bank in Singapore. Tushar was overweight back then and his sedentary lifestyle continued till the time he took up a demanding project management role with the formative team that built India’s digital ID Aadhaar.
As a result, Tushar decided to do something about his flab and he took the first step towards a healthy lifestyle. But before he could accomplish anything, he soon ran into a problem. Tushar wanted to track his calorie intake and calculate nutrients in what he ate. However, at that time, there was a little help available online in evaluating Indian food items.
Hence, Tushar and his partner Matthew Cherian opted to conduct an experiment to see what it feels like to live below the poverty line. The two men started living on just Rs 100 per day. During their experiment, Tushar and Mathew made an excel sheet consisting nutritional information of various Indian dishes.As a health aid, Tushar developed an analytical tool to break down the calories and essential nutrients in 900 Indian food items and presented it to the government’s planning council. And that’s how HealthifyMe was launched in 2011.
Growth And Challenges
Owing to the general disposition of people to put health and fitness on the backburner, HealthifyMe took an exaggerated amount of time to kick start its journey. No investor, nor doctor, nor health specialist was taking Tushar Vashisht seriously. But for every dark night, there’s a brighter day. HealthifyMe had raised a massive funding of Rs 1 crore from angel investors introduced via Microsoft accelerator. These angels were Tushar’s mentor from Aadhaar days, Raj Mashruwala and cofounder of AppLabs Sashi Reddi. After this, there was no looking back for the founders.
In the Financial Year 2019-20, HealthifyMe had seen 3 times growth, surpassing Rs 100 crore in revenue run rate. Tushar wanted HealthifyMe to evolve into a bigger and better platform to advise users on what to eat, or when to get tested against medical conditions. This Healthtech startup is now piloting doctor consultations as well.
Success Of HealthifyMe
Today, HealthifyMe has more than 20 million users, and over 400,000 paying subscribers for its App. Recently, in July 2021, the company raised over $75 million (Rs. 560 crores) in the Series C funding round led by Leapfrog, which is a leading US-based venture capital firm. The startup has now become India’s go-to platform for health and wellness, giving people access to more services than nutrition and fitness.