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.
This is Unilever Ventures’ first investment in India’s health and wellness sector. The move aligns with a rise in pharmaceutical stocks on the Indian stock exchange.
What’s Up Wellness, known for its diverse range of gummy supplements designed to make wellness simple and enjoyable, has served over 2.5 lakh users and sold over 4 lakh packs of gummies in India.
The Gurugram-based firm has expanded more than 12-fold in the past year and now has an annual recurring revenue (ARR) of Rs 30 crore, with a 40% repeat customer rate.
It has also targeted becoming a Rs 100-crore brand within the next two years. During that time, it also intends to launch 12 new products addressing various wellness-related needs for its users.
In 2022, the company received angel funding from investors, including cofounders of consumer brands like Sirona Hygiene and Clovia. Following that, What’s Up Wellness appeared on the business reality television show Shark Tank India Season 2, securing total funding of Rs 60 lakhs from three of the show’s “sharks” – Aman Gupta of BoAt, Vineeta Singh of Sugar Cosmetics, and Anupam Mittal of Shaadi.com.
In the future, the company plans to keep scaling and fast-tracking its growth while “continuing to maintain a tight grip on our bottom line and introducing more highly relevant products,” cofounders Sayantani Mandal and Vaibhav Makhija said in a statement.
Unilever Ventures stated that its investment in What’s Up Wellness is consistent with its strategy of supporting 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.
