CureFit buys Kristys Kitchen

Bangalore based healthcare and fitness start-up CureFit has acquired online health food delivery company, Kristys Kitchen for an undisclosed amount of cash and stock deal. CureFit Healthcare Pvt. Ltd provides services such as fitness advice and medicine deliveries.

Kristys Kitchen is in the segment of preparing and delivery of International healthy food cuisines. Founded in September 2016, the company has a kitchen in Bangalore and claims to be operationally cash positive and servicing over 250 orders a day. Backed by Kalaari Capital, Accel Partners and IDG Ventures, the company had raised $15 Million in Series-A round of funding last year in July. Later in August, CureFit acquired fitness centre brand Cult for $3 Million.

CureFit plans to offer it’s three main planned services – health food subscriptions, Cult Fitness subscriptions and mental wellness offering, focusing on prevention side of healthcare. Healthcare can be broadly divided into prevention and cure. Prevention has four important parts: eating healthy, active lifestyle, mental wellness, regular health check-ups. CureFit will be launching fitness, mental wellness—DIY (do-it-yourself) packs of yoga and meditation and food.

CureFit acquires controlling stake in Cult

CureFit, a healthcare and fitness start-up has acquired a controlling stake in Cult, which operates two fitness centres in Bengaluru for $3 Million. Started in 2015, Cult tries to differentiate itself from traditional gymnasiums by offering fitness training in the form of martial arts, kickboxing, and other such activities. It doesn’t use traditional gym equipment such as trademills and weights.

Cult, which will continue to run as an independent brand run by Telang, plans to expand to five centres by the end of the year and 25 centres by December 2017. Cult has a unique training model where the trainers mix and match various formats to deliver a holistic fitness regime. The traditional fitness formats are a thing of the past and trainer led group classes are something which will change the face of the fitness industry.

People are moving towards functional training from the traditional ways of gymming. Cult offers a differentiated solution which is very attractive for customers who are bored with gyms. In July, CureFit raised as much $15 Million in Series A funds from Kalaari Capital, Accel Partners and IDG Ventures, one of the most largest early rounds of funding even by an Indian start-up.

CureFit, which has 12 employees, plans to launch an app in the March quarter of next year that will first offer preventive healthcare services. The company is finalizing tie-ups with offline health and fitness service providers before its launch. It may make more acquisitions to boost its offline presence.

Housejoy buys fitness startup Orobind

Amazon backed home services provider, Housejoy, has acquired Orobind, an at-home personal fitness startup, in an all-stock deal as it looks to grow its presence in the fast growing health and wellness space.

The acquisition of Orobind is the second such deal Housejoy is closing in less than a month’s time, spurred by the $23 Million funding round the company closed in December which was led by Amazon. While the exact terms of the deal have not been disclosed, most of the team at Orobind will join Housejoy.

Orobind, which currently operates exclusively in Bengaluru, has over 1000 customers and 135 active fitness trainers on its platform. The acquisition will help Housejoy scale its own personal fitness business which it currently offers in 5 cities across India with 5,000 subscribers. Fitness and wellness is a highly lucrative category for most of the home services players primarily because of high repeat rates and high customer lifetime, value but to leverage it one must have a highly differentiated product.

Rather than looking to expand its offerings to more cities in the country, Housejoy plans to consolidate its business and dwell deeper into each business vertical in each of the cities it’s already present in. The company currently aggregates service providers for pest control, drivers, beauty, electronic repairs etc. and is building its own presence in high-demand categories such as fitness, beauty and laundry.

Fitbit enters Indian Market

Fitbit has formally entered the Indian Market by launching its complete range of fitness bands both online and offline and is aiming to become the No. 1 player in local market in the near future. The company expects India to be among its top 5 markets in next couple of years. The Indian market is currently led by Chinese company Xiaomi with its Mi Band.

Founded by James Park and Eric Friedman in 2007, San Francisco based Fitbit claims to lead the US Fitness tracker market with an 85 percent share as of March 2015, up from 67 percent a year earlier. Its revenue more than tripled from a year earlier in the quarter through March 2015. Fitbit product can be synchronized with more than 200 smartphones running on iOS, Android and Windows operating systems, as well as Apple Mac OS.

In India, the market of wearable is embryonic, selling a handful of products like smart watches and fitness brands launched by handset makers such as Samsung, Sony, Motorola, and Alcatel One touch. The fitness band segment has lately seen some action with players like Xiaomi, Micromax, Goqii making their products available at competitive price points. Fitbit too soft launched its bands in June, offering them on Amazon India.

The company will now offer its products through partnerships with Reliance Digital, Croma and Helios, which sell Fitbit seven products. There are several cheaper products available in Indian Market from rival companies. Sales of wearable devices such as smart watches and fitness bands in India totaled one lakh units in 2014 and are expected to grow to a million in 2015. Indian market reached three lakh units by the end of the second quarter of 2015.