Healofy secures US$ 8 million funding from China's Babytree, others

Bengaluru: Healofy, a "pregnancy and parenting platform for Indian moms", has raised $8 million in fresh funding from China’s parenting social network BabyTree Group, BAce Capital, a fund anchored by Ant Financial, according to a company statement on Wednesday. Existing investor Omidyar Network India also participated in the round.

Healofy plans to use the funding to further strengthen product, engineering and data science teams, and to scale its machine learning engine.

Founded in September 2016 by Gaurav Aggarwal and Shubham Maheshwari, Healofy started as a portal focused on pregnant women and new moms in the age group of 21 to 35. Users can post questions, seek advice from medical experts and others regarding maternity and childcare.

Healofy claims to have over 500,000 daily active users on their mobile app. In its next phase, the company has plans to expanding into newer categories like fashion, food, and lifestyle with services in eight Indian languages, according to its statement.

It will focus on user-generated content to connect like-minded women with each other.

“Women are the primary purchase decision-makers in most Indian households. Our data shows they are social in their decision making underlining the importance of building trust through a strong network. To help them transact online, it is critical to innovate and provide for an online shopping experience similar to the offline world," Healofy CEO Gaurav Aggarwal said in a statement.

BabyTree, meanwhile, is impressed by Healofy founders' capability in product design and user engagement. "I believe that they will not only become a leader in terms of traffic, but also establish a strong business proposition," BabyTree founder Huainan Wang said in the statement.

Healofy had earlier raised seed money from Omidyar Network India in 2018, and an angel round led by Shaadi.com founder Anupam Mittal. Omidyar India has already invested roughly $250 million in the country, backing at least 73 firms including start-ups like MyUpchar, Pratilipi, Vedantu, and several others.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.