Grow Fit raises USD 4.5 million in Series A funding from Manipal Education

New Delhi: Mobile-health Company Grow Fit on Wednesday raised USD 4.5 million in Series A funding led by Manipal Education and Medical Group (MEMG), the PE arm of Manipal Group.

Owing to this, Dr. Ranjan Pai, MD and CEO of MEMG will be joining the Board of Directors.

"Grow Fit has the right approach to reach the millions of Indians who can benefit from better nutrition and coaching. I was impressed by their novel approach, their investment in R&D and their technology platform. Indians need to make drastic changes to their health habits and Grow Fit makes it effortless for them. This is a huge opportunity and we are looking forward to unlocking it," said Dr Pai.

The company, which began operations in September 2015, is a full-stack health-tech company, committed to helping Indians achieve peak wellness through a combination of data science, medical expertise and personalised inputs. To help those who are at risk of contracting lifestyle disease, Grow Fit offers a comprehensive approach combining expert coaching, health foods and behavioral insights through their scalable technology platform.

With over 80 percent success rate, the company is poised to take its approach further with this funding. The Grow Fit mobile app has been downloaded over 300,000 times on Android and iOS platforms, with more than 150,000 diet charts generated for users.

The company uses data science and machine learning to identify and validate strategies for customer success. Grow Fit also expanded recently into the 'functional beverages' segment with the acquisition of Drink King, a nutritional beverage platform which started in early 2015.

"Grow Fit combines data science, medical science and behavioural insights to help people achieve their health goals and live their best lives. We are an outcome-oriented company and have always stressed a science-and-data approach. With this investment, Grow Fit now has the backing of one of the top medical groups in the country and we are excited about the next phase of growth with this investment," said Jyotsna Pattabiraman, Founder and CEO, Grow Fit.

Grow Fit's comprehensive approach addresses all aspects of wellness including nutrition, activity, skin/hair, sleep and mental wellness. Through their platform, users across India are connected with experts chosen based on their clinical or scientific background and experience with lifestyle diseases.

"Grow Fit has the ability to address both national and international markets. As prosperity increases globally, our nutritional habits have to compensate for our sedentary lifestyle and dependence on fast foods. Grow Fit has a relevant model that could address this gap and be effective anywhere in the world," said Kris Gopalakrishnan, Co-Founder, Infosys and an early investor in Grow Fit.

This investment comes at a time when countries world over are grappling with healthcare costs. According to the World Economic Forum, in India alone, over six million lives are lost every year due to lifestyle diseases and the economic burden of lifestyle diseases has been estimated to be over USD 4.58 trillion by 2030.

Grow Fit's future plans include expanding solutions to fertility, joint health, stress management and more, all through the mobile.

The venture also plans to integrate different sources of data from wearable technology and medical reports in order to make the app a one-stop, comprehensive companion for wellness.