Unilever’s venture capital division, Unilever Ventures, has injected a sum of INR 14.40 crore into the health and wellness firm known as What’s Up Wellness. This investment aims to bolster the startup’s workforce and facilitate the advancement of its product development efforts.
“The (seed) funding round was led by its sole new investor, Unilever Ventures…Notably, this marks Unilever Ventures’ first investment in a health & wellness company,” Gurugram-based What’s Up Wellness said in a statement on Wednesday.
The funding round also saw participation from a few of What’s Up Wellness’ existing investors, it said.
Pawan Chaturvedi, Partner-Asia at Unilever Ventures, said, “Investment in What’s Up Wellness is in line with our strategy of supporting and investing in promising indie brands in the health & wellness space. India presents a large opportunity for the wellness segment and What’s Up Wellness, with its innovative and modern formats, aims to capture this fast-transforming market.”
Watch our exclusive conversation with Vaibhav Makhija, Co-Founder of What’s Up Wellness:
What’s Up Wellness has announced its intention to allocate the newly acquired funds towards expanding its team, advancing growth initiatives, and scaling its operations. Additionally, the funding will be utilized for the creation of a range of innovative products designed to address the primary challenges encountered by its users.
During the year 2022, the company secured investments from a group of angel investors, notably including the Co-Founders of Sirona Hygiene and Clovia. Subsequently, What’s Up Wellness gained prominence by participating in Shark Tank India Season 2, where it successfully secured a funding amount of INR 60 lakh from three prominent investors on the show: Aman Gupta from BoAt, Vineeta Singh from Sugar Cosmetics, and Anupam Mittal from Shaadi.com.
According to Sayantani Mandal and Vaibhav Makhija, Co-Founders of What’s Up Wellness, the funding round is “yet another significant milestone in our journey of building What’s Up Wellness as a trailblazer” for the D2C (direct to consumer) wellness and nutrition space in the country.
Providing gummy supplements, What’s Up Wellness has catered to over 2.5 lakh users throughout India so far. The company also has intentions to introduce 12 new products within the next two years.
Experiencing a growth of over twelvefold in the previous year, the company currently holds an accounting rate of return (ARR) amounting to INR 30 crore, accompanied by a 40 percent recurrence rate among users. What’s Up Wellness has expressed its ambition to evolve into a INR 100 crore-brand within the forthcoming two years.