Tata Digital to invest up to $75 million in CureFit, names Mukesh Bansal as president

Tata Digital Ltd, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Tata Sons Pvt Ltd, will invest up to $75 million in health and fitness platform CureFit. As per the deal, CureFit Founder and CEO Mukesh Bansal will join Tata Digital in an executive role as its president. He will also continue in his leadership role at CureFit.

Bansal, who co-founded online fashion retailer Flipkart-owned Myntra, had launched CureFit with Ankit Nagori, a senior executive from Flipkart. CureFit is India's leading fitness player that has developed a strong ecosystem around fitness and wellness.

"CureFit is uniquely positioned to capture a large share leveraging its comprehensive solution and differentiated tech platform. Curefit, with its range of fitness and wellness offerings, will help Tata Digital expand into pro-active health management space," a statement said.

As Tata Group ramps up its 'super app' plan across categories like electronics, groceries, fashion and lifestyle, beauty, travel, health and fitness, education, and entertainment, it has become imperative for the $106 billion group to look for more acquisitions besides leveraging the resources in the group companies to power the e-commerce play.

Also read: Tata Digital acquires majority stake in BigBasket

N Chandrasekaran, Chairman Tata Sons, said the partnership with CureFit aligns very well with the company's overall healthcare proposition where fitness is increasingly becoming an integral part of a customers' life. Bansal said being part of Tata Digital will "enable us to nationally scale up our offerings for our customers".

He said Tata Digital has an inspiring vision to create the next general consumer platform. Sudhir Sethi, Chairman Chirate Ventures from CureFit, said the partnership is a strong validation of the category leadership that CureFit has, and will help the company grow rapidly as digital health takes off in a big way in the next decade.

Also read: Tata Group on buying spree, looking to acquire Curefit for its 'super app'

The Indian fitness and wellness market is growing at 20 per cent per annum and is expected to reach $12 billion by 2025. The current investment by Tata Digital comes a month after Tata Sons acquired a majority stake in online grocery seller BigBasket through Tata Digital. It acquired 64 per cent stake in Supermarket Grocery Supplies, the online grocer's business-to-business entity.

Tata Group also plans to bring together the potential of its fashion retail companies like Trent and Infinity Retail. The group has also entered into electronics manufacturing through Tata Electronics. The newly formed company plans to manufacture high-end technology products in Chennai.

Also read: Cars, flights, hotels! N Chandrasekaran says Tata Super App to have all categories