Cure.Fit High On Health

1) The Founders

Ankit Nagori and Mukesh Bansal. Nagori, an IIT-Guwahati graduate, worked at Flipkart for more than six years as the chief business officer. Bansal, an IIT-Kanpur alumnus, was the co-founder of fashion and lifestyle e-commerce site Myntra, which was acquired by Flipkart in 2014.

2) The Trigger

After leaving Flipkart, the duo mulled over several ideas for nearly six months. "Finally, we realised that health and fitness is one category where India has zero technology penetration," recalls Nagori. For Bansal, a fitness enthusiast, the journey has been more personal. "To be able to delve deeper and learn more about this category has been very rewarding," he says.

3) Backers

Cure.fit has raised $160 million in seven rounds from Kalaari Capital, IDG Ventures, Accel Partners and Binny Bansal, among others.

4) The Business

In a bid to promote holistic health, Cure.fit operates across four verticals. Of these, Cult.fit offers online workout classes and offline centres where the exercise regime does not involve the use of standard gym equipment. It runs 80 centres in four metros. Bollywood celebs Hrithik Roshan, Tiger Shroff and Milind Soman and cricketer K.L. Rahul have endorsed the brand and co-created workout regimens for subscribers.

Mind.fit caters to the yoga segment and conducts online and offline classes. Care.fit caters to primary healthcare needs by providing doctor consultation at its health centres and also through videoconferencing. Eat.fit is the nutrition business that prepares and delivers healthy meals, snacks and drinks. It also runs corporate kiosks and recently started a quick service restaurant (QSR) in Bengaluru. Four more QSRs are in the pipeline. Cure.fit has a subscription model in place for monetising all its touch points.

5) Growth and Expansion

Since its inception, the start-up has acquired five companies, including Tribe Fitness (2017), Kristys Kitchen (2017), a1000yoga (2017), Fitness First (2018) and Seraniti (2018). According to its three-year road map, the company plans to increase the user base from 2.5 lakh to 50 lakh, open 1,000-plus Cult.fit centres, and expand its footprint in 10-15 Indian cities and five-seven cities abroad.