Fitterfly Raises $3.1 Mn In Pre-Series A Round Led By Fireside Ventures Funds will be primarily used for improving the solution to deliver better patient outcomes at scale and impacting a large number of people by creating better awareness and reach
By Prabhjeet Bhatla •
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Healthtech company Fitterfly working in the field of digital therapeutics (DTx) announced on Wednesday it has raised $3.1 million in a Pre-Series A round led by Fireside Ventures and also saw participation from 9Unicorns—the accelerator fund of Venture Catalysts—Venture Catalysts and a clutch of angel investors from India, the US, and Singapore.
Kanwaljit Singh, managing partner, Fireside Ventures also joins as a board member. Fireside is known for investing in startups like boAt, Mamaearth, Vahdam, Yogabar, etc., and helping them become strong consumer brands people love.
Funds will be primarily used for improving the solution to deliver better patient outcomes at scale and impacting a large number of people by creating better awareness and reach.
"In the current post-pandemic era, we, at Fireside, believe that brands, platforms, and enterprises that address and serve well-being, holistic living, and health needs and concerns of consumers have acquired greater acceptance. Consumers are now amenable and willing to consider and adopt digital solutions that promise to improve and enhance their quality of life and keep them in a state of good health. The segment of digital therapeutics represents an incredible growth opportunity for us. As a consumer-focused fund, we want to play a more proactive and dynamic role in building and shaping consumer behavior and the lifestyle choices they make. In line with this objective, we are confident and excited about our investment in Fitterfly," said Kanwaljit Singh, managing partner, Fireside Ventures.
Designed to work complementary to the Doctor's medical therapy, Fitterfly DTx programs offer 360° guidance around nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress, and other factors which affect health outcomes. More than 10,000 people have subscribed and benefited from Fitterfly's programs.
"Four years back we started building India's largest clinical nutrition database and then validated it by building disease-specific nutrition advisory algorithms. From there we pivoted to Digital Therapeutics in late 2019 recognizing the large unmet need for remote support in improving outcomes. COVID-19 has pushed remote monitoring and digital therapeutics to the forefront of medicine. We are solving difficult problems, be it diabetes, obesity, women's health, or child health, through our innovative Digital Therapeutics solutions and these problems affect almost 30%-40% of the population in India. We are seeing good support from doctors as a prescription product, saving their time and helping them achieve better outcomes. As we scale up, we want to help millions of Indians prevent, reverse or manage their diseases using technology and remote care at a click. We are excited to have Fireside and Kanwaljit Singh join us on this journey and build a lasting outcome-focused company. Fireside team's consumer focus and branding experience will help us build a great brand in the healthcare space. We plan to expand our DTx portfolio and invest in developing AI and smart health tracking tools. The timely and relevant real-world data generated will enable beneficial interactions between patients, caregivers, and support networks to permit personalized and human-centric treatments with greater transparency and improved outcomes," shared Dr. Arbinder Singal, co-founder, and chief executive officer, Fitterfly.
Fitterfly's Diabetes DTx program, Diabefly available on the Fitterfly Wellness App, is a highly scientific program that uses cutting-edge data tools to correlate data from continuous glucose monitoring devices and find the real reasons for point-to-point fluctuations in blood sugar - termed Personalised Glycemic Response - customized for each patient. In addition, using insights from one of India's most comprehensive nutrition databases developed in-house, Diabefly has achieved better blood sugar control in 85 per cent of clients and medicine reduction in 30% of patients. These clinically validated outcomes have been presented at the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, ENDO 2021, and a host of other conferences internationally.
"Healthcare and digital technology are the two primary themes of the post-2020 era. The digital has become ingrained in the DNA of the post-pandemic world, transforming the mode of operations of almost every global sector. Healthcare, wellness, and therapeutic industries are no exception. Fitterfly is one such new-age brand rising to the occasion to fuse the two big themes of the post-pandemic era. At 9Unicorns, we are always on the lookout for ventures leveraging tech-based innovations to solve the most pressing pain points in society. With its focus on enabling digital therapeutics (DTx) and healthcare for patients with chronic diseases, Fitterfly crossed all the boxes on our checklist. Currently focusing on diabetes and women's health, the brand is catering to addressable markets of $21 billion and $1.14 billion respectively. Astride of its highly configurable DTx platform and a dedicated team of professionals with expertise in healthcare, technology, and wellness, Fitterfly is poised to disrupt these emerging markets. We are confident in our investment in their venture and are committed to helping them scale up to offer their much-needed services to every last Indian who may need it. We wish them continued success," added Golecha, co-founder, 9Unicorns.
In June 2019, Fitterfly had raised a seed round of $1 Mn from HNIs.
