The health management space is a sector that has been growing rapidly over the last year, attracting the attention of conglomerates around the world. So far, this sector been untouched by Tata Sons, which is nothing less than an industrial empire in India. On Monday, this changed as Tata made its presence known in the health management sector after Tata Digital, one of its subsidiaries, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for investing $75 million in five-year-old CureFit Healthcare Private Limited (CureFit), subject to completion of diligence process and other approvals.
As a part of the deal, CureFit CEO and co-founder Mukesh Bansal would be joining Tata Digital in an executive role as President, Tata Digital Limited, as well as continuing to continue in his current position at CureFit.
This marks Tata’s third major acquisition/investment in 2021 – it had invested around $219 million to acquire a majority stake in online grocery start-up BigBasket earlier this year and is currently in the process of buying online pharmacy 1mg. It expects that the fitness and wellness market in India is growing annually at approximately 20% and is expected to reach around $12 billion by 2025.
CureFit’s product portfolio products include a varied range of offerings, including fitness and yoga, mental wellbeing, healthy meals, diagnostics, as well as personal training, allowing users to book therapists, order food, and get doctor consultations. The startup, which had about 1.5 million monthly active users in India last month, currently aims to leverage its technology platform to enhance user experience and increase the penetration of fitness in the Indian market.
N. Chandrasekaran, chairman, Tata Sons, said, “The CureFit partnership with its industry-leading platform in fitness and wellness aligns very well with our overall healthcare proposition where fitness is increasingly becoming an integral part of a consumers’ life. We are delighted to have Mukesh Bansal as a part of the key leadership team of Tata Digital. With his deep consumer experience and an entrepreneurial mindset of having incubated and grown two very successful businesses, his expertise will bring immense value to us.”
According to Bansal, who is also a co-founder of popular digital fashion retailer Myntra, joining forces with Tata Digital marks a new step for him and his team, recognizing the value they created with CureFit for fitness enthusiasts in India. “Being part of Tata Digital will enable us to nationally scale up our offerings for our customers. Tata Digital has a highly inspiring vision to create the next generation consumer platform and I am very excited to be part of the Tata Digital team that is shaping this vision,” he said.
