It was the year 2016 and I was deeply excited about the start-up space in India. As I sat in the NASSCOM warehouse in Kolkata and flush with everything ‘start-up’ around me, there was something strikingly odd that I read.
Accel Partners, IDG Ventures India, and Kalaari Capital have participated in a USD 15 Mn round, which includes an investment of USD 3 Mn by Bansal himself. The deal values the health and wellness start-up at about USD 50 Mn. CureFit will open for business in 2017.
A USD 15 Mn funding at a valuation of USD 50 Mn for a start-up that shall commence operations after a year.
Let that sink in for a moment.
Where is the MVP?
Has the product-market fit been tested?
What if the business does not work?
Clearly, all these apprehensions were put to rest when CureFit has launched and what an illustrious journey the company has had. From raising USD 15 Mn at a valuation of USD 50 Mn from 3 investors to finally being valued at USD 732 Mn, a 14x jump in valuation with the fundraising of USD 404 Mn, CureFit has come a long way in 4 years.
Both Mukesh and Ankit are poster boys of the Indian startup ecosystem. To understand more about Curefit, I recently picked up ‘No Limits‘ – the book written by Mukesh on his journey of achieving high performance.
(I haven’t completed the book yet but if you wish to get a sneak peek into how entrepreneurs and athletes prepare for high performance, it’s a must-read. You can click here to access.)
An interesting fact about Mukesh is that before Myntra, he has worked and founded multiple startups in Silicon Valley. Ankit was associated with the senior management team at Flipkart before co-founding curefit.
Curefit aims to be a holistic provider of end-to-end preventive healthcare in India. They have four main verticals in their offering – cult.fit (fitness), eat.fit (meals now expanded to groceries), care.fit (healthcare) & mind.fit (meditation and mental health). It has also commenced selling merchandise under the ‘Cultgear’ / ‘Cultsport’ brand.
Click here to read further.