It turned into the year 2010. Everything transferred online; however, medicinal drugs and healthcare within the Indian context were saved away. This is where Harvard and Stanford graduates Prashant Tandon and Sameer Maheshwari saw an opening. To address it, in 2011, they based HealthKart as an e-commerce participant for vitamins, drug treatments, and different medical wishes in Gurugram.
In 2015, even though the employer hived off its medicinal drug and scientific eCommerce operations right into a separate entity – 1mg – which turned into co-based through Prashant together with Gaurav Agarwal. Today, Heckart is an omnichannel vitamins platform that provides several supplements like proteins, vitamins, and herbal dietary supplements via an internet portal. Over one hundred ten offline shops spread throughout forty cities. The company claims to be clocking a 60 percent year-on-year increase since it started. The team announced it had raised $25 million in investment led by Sofia. Existing investors encompass Sequoia Capital India, Kae Capital, and Omidyar Network.
Building the dietary business
HealthKart Co-founder and CEO Sameer told YourStory, “In 2015, we decided to recognize HealthKart as a dietary commercial enterprise. We noticed a massive possibility in the area. Unlike the US, which has specialty vitamins stores, there have been none in India. People had commenced transferring towards preventive care, and there has hardly ever been any offline presence. So, we decided to enter the offline nutrition market and offer the identical revel that we do online – deliver the patron guide, counseling, and steering.”
Soon, the group included the channel. Currently, HealthKart claims the online-offline cut-up at 50:50. It also offers assistance to its customers in product selection and food regimen planning through trained nutritionists. With this $25 million, HealthKart pursues extending its offline save community and additional direct-to-client nutrition manufacturers and enhancing its vertical integration.
Regarding funding, Tanya Sen, Investment Manager at Sofia Asia, stated, “We look forward to partnering with HealthKart to increase its emblem portfolio and distribution network similarly. We are impressed by the pace at which the control team has scaled the MuscleBlaze brand and are proud to back their dedication to building a range of high best, authenticity-guaranteed products for the Indian client. This investment is a part of our method to be long-term companions to talented entrepreneurs and traders constructing sustainable corporations in growing markets.”
Product improvement
HealthKart claims its flagship logo—MuscleBlaze—is one of the main sports nutrition merchandise in the market, with a double-digit marketplace percentage and sturdy emblem. The company is now planning to use a similar technique to build sturdy brands in adjoining nutrition categories, including nutrients, dietary supplements, and kids’ nutrition. Sameer explains that the crew saw every other white space within the consumer brand segment, leading them to construct MuscleBlaze.
“We realized in our conversations with clients that there had been a need for a sports activity nutrient product. That is how we developed MuscleBlaze. We built a web rapport with folks curious about the product, asked them what they were searching out, and constructed it,” he says.
The agency, which has invested extensively in R&D, has created numerous extraordinary formulae that are consistent with Sameer. The sports activities nutrition marketplace became largely ruled with the aid of gamers from the US. The HealthKart team, therefore, determined to co-increase the goods with clients based totally on their requirements. Once MuscleBlaze scaled online, they added the product offline as well. The crew has FSSAI certifications and extra protein certifications via NABL-licensed labs.
