Wellcurve is a Thrasio Style Healthcare Nutrition platform with an aim to build an ecosystem of Healthy Food Brands in India. The company is trying to solve the healthy Lifestyle challenges of millions of Indians by leveraging a trusted network of health experts. Wellcurve is a New Delhi-based startup founded by Nikhil Mehra in 2019. Now that people are more interested in investing in a healthy lifestyle, Wellcurve grabbed my attention. So, I decided to know more about the platform. Recently, I got a chance to have a conversation with Nikhil Mehra who talked about WellCurve, its recent foray into video commerce, and expansion plans. His answers also revealed a few interesting things about Nikhil Mehra.
Please tell us about Wellcurve.
The current E-Commerce platforms and the online space are cluttered with content & multiple brands from various industries which confuses the consumers to make correct buying choices. Our approach has been to solve the twin problems of both 250 Million Health Conscious Individuals (HCIs) who are looking for a trusted platform to serve their healthy lifestyle goals & the over 1000 D2C Brands in the $30 Billion Dollar healthy food space who want to reach out to HCIs with the help of a Community of Experts by creating an Ecosystem of Brands-HCIs-Health Experts. We have also become India’s first video commerce nutrition and wellness ecosystem.
When was it founded and what led to its foundation?
WellCurve.in was launched in January 2020. During my tenure as CEO of the group and a fitness enthusiast myself, I made a key observation on how urban India constantly aims at achieving great fitness. Hence, I saw merit in providing a platform where people cannot only choose from an array of healthy alternatives but also get corresponding information on health trends, products, and more by a trusted set of people whom they can also interact with. Since launch, we have now grown to 90 Brands & 1500+ Products.
How much funds have you raised so far? Please share the details of the investors.
This year Wellcurve raised an undisclosed amount in a seed investment round. The round was led by Benevolent Capital, one of the leading investors in Thrasio, and witnessed additional participation from Angel investor Tommy Rosen, one of the investors in Thrive Market, America’s biggest organic food E-commerce platform. We also raised $600K in a seed round in 2021, and with the current investment, Wellcurve hosts a marquee of Venture Capital firms and Angel investors on its cap table consisting of Benevolent Capital, Tommy Rosen along with 9 other Harvard alumni.
Who are your competitors and how do you differentiate from them?
Our Community commerce model is what differentiates us from our competitors because we are building a community of health experts who are available 24×7 to assist and guide our consumers to eat and shop better.
Wellcurve recently announced video commerce on its platform. Please share more details on it and how has been the consumer response so far and your expectations from it.
We launched Community Commerce which uses Video Commerce & Social Commerce in June 2022, as a medium to further assist consumers. We have so far built a community of 400+ health experts including certified nutritionists, dietitians, doctors, chefs, and fitness & yoga experts who are doing their bit in making Indians switch to a Healthier Lifestyle. By using the medium of videos on Wellcurve, they are helping our consumers to be aware of what to buy and how to consume the products before making a purchase. The beta has given promising results, significantly lowering our cost of acquiring new customers at 1/4th acquisition cost.
Expansion plans and growth in the next 5 years?
With a great response from initial 100k consumers, we aim to become a Market Leader in the segment by leveraging community Commerce & further expanding the ecosystem to help users make better buying choices to support their Healthy Lifestyle goals. We have just launched Community Commerce which uses Video Commerce & Social Commerce as mediums to further assist the consumers and also differentiates us from other players in this segment. The beta has given promising results significantly lowering our cost of acquiring new customers at 1/4th acquisition cost. We are looking to increase our category depth by adding more brands in each category & also increase our share of the Preventive Healthcare segment.
Any recent product launches or plans in the coming time?
Our current launch is our Social Commerce Model where we’re leveraging the influence of social media to aware our customers and guide them to shop better through the medium of informational videos.
How do you foresee the landscape of the Health and Nutrition sector in India and what do you bring to the sector?
Each one of us witnessed a shift in the mindset of consumers post-pandemic. Consumers now want to eat healthily and hence the health and nutrition sector has seen a boom since 2019. I am a fitness enthusiast myself and I highly believe that our health is our biggest wealth with Wellcurve, I am doing my bit to help people make a healthier switch.
Any plans for raising funds?
We have been able to achieve 200% growth in the last 12 months with our pre-seed rounds and now are in the middle of raising Pre-Series/Series A round to cater to the next 120 Million Health Conscious Individuals
Challenges faced or any milestones you’d like to share?
As a founder, I believe one of the toughest tasks is to find the right set of people to work with. You need to ensure that the Core Team you hire is on the same frequency as you are & equally understands the business. I have been fortunate enough to find such people for Wellcurve. We also faced two more primary challenges (Especially in the post Pandemic era):
- Validation from an initial set of Customers (The first 10000 customers are the toughest to track as you are still trying to understand consumer feedback & behavior on your platform)
- Validation from an initial set of Brands (Initial 30 brands are the toughest to onboard since you are a new platform)
