Digital-first wellness brand What’s Up Wellness has raised Rs 14.40 crore in a seed funding round led by Unilever Ventures, the venture capital arm of FMCG giant Unilever, according to ETtech report.
This marks Unilever Ventures’ inaugural investment in the health and wellness category in India. The move comes amid a surge in pharmaceutical stocks in the Indian stock market.
What’s Up Wellness, known for its diverse range of gummy supplements designed to make wellness both enjoyable and convenient, has served over 2.5 lakh users and sold over 4 lakh packs of gummies across India.
The Gurugram-based company has grown more than 12-fold in the past year and presently boasts an annual recurring revenue (ARR) of Rs 30 crore, with a 40% repeat customer rate.
Additionally, it has set its sights on evolving into a Rs 100-crore brand within the next two years. It also plans to introduce around 12 new products during that period, addressing various wellness-related needs for its users.
In 2022, the company had raised angel funding from a group of investors including co-founders of consumer brands such as Sirona Hygiene and Clovia. Subsequently, What’s Up Wellness appeared on the business reality television show Shark Tank India Season 2, securing cumulative funding of Rs 60 lakhs from three so-called sharks on the show – Aman Gupta of BoAt, Vineeta Singh of Sugar Cosmetics, and Anupam Mittal of Shaadi.com.
Going forward, the company intends to keep scaling and fast-tracking its growth, while “continuing to maintain a tight grip on our bottomline and introducing more highly relevant products,” cofounders Sayantani Mandal and Vaibhav Makhija said in a statement.
Unilever Ventures said the investment in What’s Up Wellness is in keeping with its strategy of backing and investing in “promising indie brands in the health and wellness domain.”
“India presents a substantial opportunity in the wellness sector, and What’s Up Wellness, with its innovative and contemporary formats, aims to seize this rapidly evolving market. We are excited to be early supporters of What’s Up Wellness in their next growth phase,” said Pawan Chaturvedi, Partner-Asia at Unilever Ventures.
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