Venture Catalysts and 9Unicorns, India’s leading early-stage investors, will be organising their second Demo Day (DDay2) on April 14, showcasing 26 startups from their respective portfolios. Here are four startups that are disrupting the health and well-being sector.

Health and well-being have emerged as thriving segments in India for startups. The Covid-19 pandemic was an enabler for digital health services.

Also read: Five ways startups can improve their customer engagement

Following the pandemic, there has been a growth spurt in the number of healthcare and well-being startups in India. Currently, there are 7,128 healthtech startups in India, according to data from Tracxn. 

If you are interested in the latest and upcoming solutions in the sector, here are four startups that you need to know:

Auric

Launched by Deepak Agarwal, Auric is a leading D2C Ayurveda brand. Auric started in 2018 with ayurvedic supplements and is now pivoting into bringing Ayurveda to Food and Beauty.

Auric is at $5m ARR with a 70% Gross Margin and 75% of its customers repeat 2 times the first-order value in the first 12 months. Agarwal and his team believe that the future of Ayurveda lies with millennials. The products offered by Auric, therefore, are targeted toward the young. The brand aims to align its products with pop culture. 

Products offered by Auric range from detoxifying drinks to fizzy drinks and supplements for beauty, health, and sexual well-being.

TagZ Foods

Can’t give up chips? TagZ offers innovative and better-for-you versions of the snacks that consumers already love such as chips, dips, chocolates and cookies.

The popped potato chips by TagZ come with 50% less fat and have no cholesterol, no trans fat, no artificial colours or preservatives, no palm oil, and no gluten. The startup, founded by Anish Basu Roy and Sagar Bhalotia, leverages popping, a new technology that uses high temperature and pressure on the finest quality potato. TagZ has recently launched a range of international gourmet dips in flavours such as pepper jack, garlic aioli, ranch, and chipotle.

TagZ is on a mission to help urban GenZ consumers eat better and lead a more active, fitter lifestyle by pursuing their passion for sports, travel, outdoors, and music. At the same time, it is a plastic neutral brand.

Also read: The work of the future is hybrid. The office of the future is virtual

The startup is focused on the top 30-40 million households across the country to begin with, alongside international export markets as well. It is focused on consumers who are looking for international snacking experiences with a focus on taste, fitness, and sustainability.

TagZ was also featured in India’s Shark Tank post which witnessed a 220 % surge in sales thus helping it gain a household name status amongst the younger health-conscious generation. TagZ is also recognised as one of the Fastest growing D2C Brands in India by INC42

Navia Life Care

Kunal Kishore Dhawan, Gaurav Gupta, and Nupur Khandelwal founded Navia Life Care in 2016 with a mission to empower the health ecosystem with innovative platforms for improving the standard of care and health outcomes across the world. The company has developed a connected care app that can transform medical practice.

The platform uses technology to improve three major areas of medical practice: patient reach and experience, care, and engagement. It facilitates the seamless transmission of information across various stakeholders of the healthcare industry. There are modules for patient engagement, practice management, digital EMR, and smart devices that are used by healthcare providers and patients.

Also read: Breaking barriers and bias: How this VC empowers women to take the lead

Navia Smart EMR uses AI-enabled suggestions, clinical decision support, and voice-to-text to help healthcare providers and doctors create digital prescriptions faster and with minimal behaviour change. Navia e-Consult helps doctors establish virtual OPDs, including video and teleconsultations, which comply with all guidelines and security measures. Navia QM helps in streamlining the patient flow and reducing OPD waiting times in crowded clinics and hospitals. Navia Connected Care also integrates smart medical devices in order to capture real-time data and help doctors diagnose patients in a better way.

Uvi Health

Uvi Health offers a holistic solution that helps women manage their PCOS naturally while reducing the risk of infertility. Through Uvi Health, you can understand your root cause and get compassionate care from experts, tailored for you — online.

Founded by Mehak Malik, an alumnus of Harvard and ex-VC, Uvi Health simplifies the healthcare regimen for women living with chronic, sexual, and reproductive health disorders by building science-backed programmes. The company ensures its users get an end-to-end experience by bringing everything from diagnosis, specialist consults, and lifestyle modifications under one roof. Its plans are digitally delivered, affordable, and powered by a local network of highly vetted experts.

Healofy

Healofy is India’s largest parenting app with a community of 2 million active mothers on its platform. Present in nine languages, Healofy has built a very personalised and relevant community for 45 months of early motherhood.

On the top of the community, Healofy has built a freemium content subscription business where over 300M+ content pieces are consumed on the monthly basis on the topics like pregnancy health and nutrition, maternity personal care, baby development and growth, baby’s health, baby personal care etc. The platform has over 5 million+ consumable content (videos and infographics), 30 million+ Questions & Answers, discussion forums etc. Today, it has the largest content repository in the mother and child care space globally.

From the last 3 quarters, Healofy is building a commerce subscription business on the top of the community through a conversational D2C model. This not only helps in building a strong D2C brand in the white space categories which require high awareness like mom and baby nutrition, health, growth, but also provides a very efficient predictability of timeline-led monthly spending.

Founded by a team of IITians and serial entrepreneurs-Gaurav Aggarwal, Prasoon Thapliyal and Aradhana Singh, Healofy has over 10 million downloads and a current ARR of USD 6M, which is growing 20% MOM (last 6 months) from 1 SKU (9 months back) to 18 SKUs today through D2C commerce. The company is closing its Series B+ of $ 20mn-$25 mn by July this year. It has so far raised USD 13 million from Venture Catalysts, Omidyar Network, Celesta Capital, BAce Capital, M&S partners, IPV, Haldiram amongst other angel investors like Anupam Mittal, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Kunal Shah, Amrish Rau and family, & Jitendra Gupta.

To get to know these five groundbreaking startups better, catch Demo Day 2 (DDay2) organised by Venture Catalysts and 9Unicorns. You can access the showcase by registering here.

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Photo by Marcus Aurelius

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by Venture Catalysts and 9Unicorns

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Singapore’s recent annual Budget 2022 made clear that the government is laser-focused on reinforcing the digital backbone of all local businesses. Yet it also warned that the time for twiddling thumbs to digital transformation is over; action is needed now, especially for traditional sectors.

With the pandemic lingering but the crisis thankfully receding in the rearview mirror, the need for innovation to chart a path forward is more urgent than ever.

Singapore’s Finance Minister, Lawrence Wong, believes the city-state and its businesses still have an opportunity to be leaders in key segments.

To support Singapore’s digital innovation agenda as much as possible, the government has rolled out a number of schemes that do just that, even as they keep the pedal to the metal on infrastructure spending to ensure businesses have access to world-class broadband and 5G services.

Strengthening the digital backbone of traditional industries

Singapore is a leader in fintech and digital banking, though the same cannot be said for some of our traditional sectors like construction, real estate, and maritime. These have not enjoyed the same pace of innovative change, and this isn’t just specific to Singapore.

That these sectors absolutely must now think about moving faster on their digital transformation projects and agendas. The strong economic recovery from the pandemic is no excuse to avoid this transition.

Also Read: Shouldering the responsibility of digital payment security

The risk is that Singapore becomes a leader in narrow technologies and sectors, but in a way that is not evenly distributed across our economy. This could result in R&D spending on innovation being insufficient for the new era we are entering.

As Minister Wong illustrated, local firms represent 80 per cent of all businesses in the country but only spend contribute about 25 per cent of the spending on overall R&D seen in the economy. This imbalance, I believe, is likely even starker in some of the traditional sectors I’ve highlighted.

Championing the innovation agenda in every sector

The world’s supply chains continue to be squeezed by inflation and volatile markets, which now include geopolitical considerations and the energy crisis as we transition from fossil fuels to renewables. It’s clear that the challenges shipping and maritime face are evolving.

That’s why it’s all the more crucial that maritime companies, many of which operate regionally and even globally, get their innovation roadmaps in order, even if it’s starting with something as simple as moving more processes from paper to digital. 

Then there are the construction and real estate sectors. These were on the sharp end of the fallout from COVID-19 as entire economies went into shutdown and workforces moved from the office to the home.

Shopping moved online as e-commerce players benefited while physical stores became ghost towns. Social distancing restrictions meant that most construction sites emptied as workers couldn’t access them.

Data compiled by McKinsey found broad agreement among construction companies that digital and innovation are vital to their long-term prosperity. Yet still, not enough is being spent on their transformation efforts.

I’ll be the first to admit that solutions like cloud technology aren’t a golden bullet to solve all the hurdles some of these industries are grappling with. However, they are better than the business-as-usual alternative we often saw pre-pandemic.

Prioritising digital to emerge stronger

The good news is that there are clear reasons for optimism about the future of business and Singapore’s competitiveness.

Also Read: COVID-19 and the wave of business digitalisation

We’re lucky to have a government’s ongoing fiscal and monetary support with innovation in its DNA while also being a champion of business and capital markets.

There are also positive signs emerging in the data that a recovery is well underway with the domestic real estate market; for example, bringing in over SG$26 billion in sales last year at an annualised growth rate of more than 10 per cent.

Meanwhile, the domestic construction industry is expected to grow at nearly 16 per cent in the year ahead, according to data from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), even as the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) recently urged more aggressive adoption of digital technologies.

My message to businesses in these sectors is simple: let’s not get lazy now as things are starting to look better. Where there are opportunities to start new digital transformation projects, take them, even if it’s within siloed teams or departments and not necessarily across the entire organisation.

An example of somewhere simple to start is moving the finance department’s invoice processing from paper to digital, cloud-based alternatives (let’s not forget an unhealthy reliance on paper was a key reason accounting staff had to go into the office in person at the height of the pandemic).

The final thing I’d say is that starting on a digital transformation journey is a bit like starting any other good habit in that it spills over to other areas and reinforces positive change. 

We’ve seen that digital transformations reveal hidden benefits to areas like business resilience and continuity planning, work from home (WFH) capabilities, improved data governance, and even a lower carbon footprint that will make your organisation more ESG ready. 

Let’s not wait for the next crisis to invest in the innovation we need today. 

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prePO, a pre-IPO and pre-token trading platform, has raised US$2.1 million in strategic funding, led by Republic Capital and IOSG Ventures.

Other participating investors include MEXC, AscendEX, GCR, Shima Capital, Caballeros Capital, Dexterity Capital, HoneyDAO, NeptuneDAO; founders from Gnosis, 1inch, Moonbeam, Zapper, Gelato, BarnBridge, Zeta, Fleek, Immunefi, deBridge, Thales, and Dapp.com.

Singapore-based prePO said in a press note that this capital raise will help unlock private markets like SpaceX and OpenSea for the masses.

This deal follows last year’s US$1.1 million seed round from investors such as The LAO, Maven 11, Apollo Capital, Koji Capital, and founders from Illuvium, Alchemix, mStable, dHedge and Zed Run.

Also Read: Crypto trading: How to be sure you are doing it safely?

Founded by Xavier Ekkel, pre-PO is a decentralised trading platform allowing anyone to gain synthetic exposure to any pre-IPO company or pre-token crypto project. The platform allows anyone to go long or short on any pre-IPO company or pre-token crypto project in an instant and non-custodial manner.

By using prePO, retail investors can access opportunities that VCs, institutional investors, and PE firms have enjoyed exclusively for decades.

Investors can also use the platform to hedge their exposure to pre-public assets in their portfolio or for transparent and up-to-date market pricing.

prePO’s token is expected to launch in Q2 2022. The first version will launch directly on the Ethereum scaling solution Arbitrum shortly after the token launch.

Ray Xiao, Principal at IOSG Ventures, said: “prePO’s breakthrough design ensures that adequate liquidity exists for speculation and that liquidity providers are risk-limited and rewarded meaningfully.”

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theAsianparent onboards Thailand’s Central Retail as investor

Singapore-based The Parent Inc. (formerly Tickled Media), the owner of theAsianparent, one of Southeast Asia’s leading community and content platforms for mums and parents, has closed a US$22 million round.

The funding round was led by East Ventures and other undisclosed investors. New investor Central Retail Corporation and existing investor WHG Holdings participated.

The round comprised a mixture of primary and secondary investment alongside venture debt. The venture debt funding was provided by DBS and is the second such venture debt financing obtained from the bank.

The deal comes close on the heels of announcing LINE SEA as a shareholder late last month.

The Parent Inc. owns and operates several media platforms, including Mama’s Choice, a direct to consumer brand that manufactures and retails safe, natural, Halal, and FDA-approved pregnancy, nursing, baby care, and household products for families in Asia. Its other publications are:

• Asian Money Guide (a personal finance and career portal for women).
• HerStyleAsia (delivering cutting-edge content on the Asian entertainment, style, and culture scenes).
• Nonilo (a food, home, and DIY lifestyle hub).

theAsianparent is available in 11 languages in 13 countries, including Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, India, Taiwan, Japan and Nigeria.

Also Read: How theAsianparent aims to help reduce stillbirth rates in Southeast Asia

Today, the firm claims to reach over 35 million users monthly. According to Mahtani, the company’s revenue grew 100 per cent in 2021 y-o-y.

Conversational AI platform Active.Ai gets acquired

Gupshup, a global conversational engagement company, has acquired Singapore-based Active.Ai, a conversational AI platform used by banks and fintech firms.

The acquisition strengthens Gupshup’s customer experience solutions for BFSI customers.

Headquartered in Singapore, Active.Ai serves BFSI customers across 43 countries with its conversational banking-as-a-service (CBaaS) platform that helps clients engage with millions of consumers every month.

Also Read: Singapore fintech startup Active.ai raises US$8.25M to help banks adopt AI solutions

Active.Ai claims to have enabled more than 300 million user interactions via voice, video and messaging, managed over 30 million service requests and fulfilled 50 million-plus enquiries.

Active.Ai’s investors include InnoCells, Kalaari Capital, Vertex Ventures, Chiratae Ventures, CreditEase, DI and Kstart.

Textile tech platform Wifkain raises seed funding

Indonesia-based tech-enabled textile trading platform Wifkain has secured an undisclosed seed funding led by Insignia Ventures Partners.

Prominent angels, including Atome’s Wawan Salum, participated.

The money will help expand the suite of services provided to SMEs and fashion brands on Wifkain’s platform, onboarding more merchants and building the team.

Founded in 2020, Wifkain is a supply chain platform for all fashion brands in Indonesia. The startup aims to bring convenience for businesses to source fabrics from direct suppliers, both online and offline.

Customers can view and order fabrics online. Samples can be ordered effortlessly for direct touch and feel within a 24-hour delivery.

Since its launch in 2020, Wifkain claims it has seen 11x year-on-year growth with over 150 merchants across Java Island.

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