Vegan health wellness start-up Fitspire raises $300k from marquee investors

Fitspire, a vegan health-wellness brand, has raised $300,000 funding from global marquee investors - Ivor Braganza and Rajesh Sud. 

Founded in 2020 by IIM Lucknow alumnus Vipen Jain, Fitspire provides various health and wellness products in the nutritional segment. Focussed on Vegan health products, Fitspire is India's first vegan family health wellness brand catering to sports-nutrition, general health wellness, personal and child wellness. 

The Delhi-based start-up will use the fresh funds to further strengthen its ecosystem and accelerate market expansion, build the brand, and create new revenue streams. 

Braganza, Director of Next 5 Oman, has over 30 years of experience in the FMCG space and distribution for some of the largest multinational brands in India, UK, Russia and the Middle East.  

He is also an active investor in disruptive businesses across various categories and has been investing in India and other geographies for over a decade. 

Meanwhile, Sud, Managing Director of Bharti Financial Services, leads the Life and General Insurance Businesses and is on the board of Airtel Payments Bank. A financial services professional, he has in the past served as Chairman of Max Bupa Health Insurance Company and as Vice Chairman & Managing Director of Max Life Insurance. 

Earlier this year, Fitspire, owned by Starcap Wellness Pvt Ltd, had raised an undisclosed foreign direct investment (FDI) round. In 2020, it raised a $200k pre-seed round led by well-known singer Sukhbir Singh. In 2021, the brand raised another FDI round of $250k from multiple angels.   

"More people in India are becoming increasingly aware of how diets influence animal welfare, climate change, and obviously impact health," said Jain. 

"These findings led us to launching Fitspire and we have been backed by some of the great minds in the start-up and corporate world. The funds will be utilised to promote research and development of the product and expand our services in tier 2 cities to the international market this year," he added. 

According to Jain, Fitspire's sales grew by more than 50 per cent in 2021 on the back of growing demand for vegan products, consistent customer engagement, product expansion, and an omnichannel approach. 

The company's goal over the next two years is to capture 20 per cent of the total vegan market that is currently pegged at Rs 6000 crore and is growing at a CAGR of 28 per cent. 

Fitspire makes products for all age and all health segments such as vegan proteins, multivitamins, vitality, healthy snacking (bars and peanut butter), weight management Keto, skincare, immunity products and kids multivitamin drinks. 

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