Tata Digital Ltd, a subsidiary of Tata Sons Ltd, on Monday said it has agreed to invest up to $75 million in fitness startup CureFit.
Mukesh Bansal, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of CureFit Healthcare Pvt. Ltd, will continue as CEO and also take up an executive role at Tata Digital as president. Earlier, Bansal had founded apparel and fashion website Myntra in 2007.
Tata Digital’s latest investment follows its continuing investments and acquisitions in the digital space, even as the Tata group works on a super app for consumers.
“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 consumer’s 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,” said N. Chandrasekaran, chairman, Tata Sons.
“Joining Tata Digital is a recognition of the value we have 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,” said Bansal.
In May, Tata Digital announced the purchase of a majority stake in online grocer BigBasket. Separately, regulatory filings dated 27 May showed Tata Digital had committed an investment of ₹1,591 crore ($219 million) in BigBasket, of which the online grocer has received ₹1,116 crore (about $154 million).
Tata Digital invested ₹100 crore as debt in online medicine startup 1MG in April, according to company filings with the ministry of corporate affairs. It is also eyeing a majority stake in the startup.
The company is engaged in exploratory talks to invest in Just Dial, a search engine for local businesses, according to an Economic Times report.
Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) had bought a controlling 60% stake in Vitalic Health Pvt. Ltd, parent of e-pharmacy Netmeds last year for approximately ₹620 crore. Both Tata Digital and CureFit declined to comment on the details of the transaction.
Tata Digital is said to be working on a super app to bring all its consumer businesses under one platform. It looks to offer digital payments, financial products, e-commerce, and e-grocery services on this new super app, rivalling the likes of Amazon India, RIL, and Walmart-owned Flipkart.
Earlier in May, Tatas increased the share capital of Tata Digital from ₹1,000 crore to ₹10,000 crore, regulatory filings showed. The digital arm of Tata Sons also aims to raise ₹5,000 crore by issuing commercial papers.
Founded in 2016 by Bansal and Ankit Nagori, CureFit provides a range of fitness services on its platform.
“The partnership with Tata Digital will significantly accelerate CureFit’s growth as a fitness and wellness leader and will open up access to a large new consumer base. It is a strong validation of the category leadership that CureFit has and help it grow rapidly as digital health takes off in a big way in the next decade,” said Sudhir Sethi, chairman, Chiratae Ventures, an early backer of CureFit.
