<div> </div><div><em>Healthifyme raises close to $1 mn, announces its partnership with Micromax Mobile, report <strong>K Chandra Mohan and Vishal Krishna</strong></em><br><br>Healthifyme, a nutrition and wearable technology company, announced an undisclosed second round of funding at a startup conference held by Microsoft Ventures on Thursday (18 June). Sources added that this second round was close to $1 million led by Bala Parthasarthy of Angel Prime and Amit Gupta of InMobi. HealthifyMe had earlier raised $250000 from angel investors. This signals the interest of investors in investing in wearable health device companies that offer services.</div><div> </div><div>According to IDC, a research firm, vendors will ship a total of 45.7 million wearble units in 2015, up a strong 133.4 per cent from the 19.6 million units shipped in 2014. By 2019, total shipment volumes are forecast to reach 126.1 million units, resulting in a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 45.1 per cent.</div><div> </div><div>Healthifyme also announced its partnership with Micromax Mobiles, one of the largest mobile device manufacturers, in the country to sell their UFit band. This device purchased by the first 1000 people will offer free nutrition services through the Healthifyme app downloaded from any app store. This move will give Healthifyme a market access of nearly 20 million smartphone customers.</div><div> </div><div>The company will now compete with the likes of GoQii and GetActive which offer wearble technology health services. GoQii has added over 500 nutritionists and is a leading startup in the wearble technology industry. Sources say it has invested over $5 million in the seed round itself.</div><div> </div><div>The next rounds of funding for both companies could be more than $50 million.</div><div> </div><div>Meanwhile Healthifyme plans to recruit 1,000 nutritionists, currently it employs 100, and fitness trainers in the coming days. It also plans several low cost plans to its customers and has managed to acquire 100,000 users.</div><div> </div><div>Thushar Vashist, CEO and Founder, Healthifyme says, "We are on a mission to HealthifyIndia. I am glad to have received support from investors who believe in our mission." He adds that with this fund raising round they are going to democratise healthy living - providing fitness and weight loss at a fraction of market value, while simultaneously providing employment to hundreds of nutritionists and trainers.</div><div> </div><div>HealthifyMe, built for the Indian customer, provides access to the world's first and largest food database, a sophisticated calorie counter for regional foods and a thorough exercise tracker for logging in physical activities. While GoQii tracks calorie count based on food intake and has a nutritionist assigned to each individual.</div><div> </div><div>HealthifyMe also works in partnership with leading giants, in healthcare, such as Apollo and Manipal, where the app has proved effective in treating and preventing clinical obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular problems and other lifestyle diseases. The only problem is that regulation does not allow these companies to share data with insurance businesses. Therefore customised insurance plans cannot be sold to individuals. Regulators also fear that the data of consumers, stored in the cloud of these service providers, could be stolen by hackers for malign intent. If regulation comes through these businesses are in for $1 billion valuation with added services.</div><div> </div><div>"All wearable companies have to provide services to scale up. They have to define their business models," says Sanchit Vir Gogia, CEO of Greyhound Research.</div><div> </div><div>Currently, the wearable and health services makes sense if hospitals and insurance companies can use this data to track and reward users. The data is a gold mine. Since the hardware is already commoditised, the companies should make good with the data to increase revenues. GoQii is focusing it's plans entirely in the USA because the propensity to using data is higher in the USA. Healthifyme wants to focus on South Asian markets where the price points are lower and is a challenging market to conquer. "Today everyone wants to have a great lifestyle with good advice; its the service that makes us unique," says Vishal Gondal of GoQii. Meanwhile GetActive is focused on the Indian market and is offering fitness tracking at an affordable price of $80. They have raised an undisclosed round from angel investors. But it offers no advice on nutrition. India has 600 million people below the age of 40 and it surely is a large market for the nascent wearable health technology industry.</div>
