Unilever's venture capital arm invests in health & wellness startup

FMCG major Unilever's venture capital arm Unilever Ventures has invested Rs 14.40 crore in health and wellness company What's Up Wellness to ramp up the startup's team and product development.

"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.

"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," said Pawan Chaturvedi, Partner-Asia at Unilever Ventures.

What's Up Wellness said it will utilise the fresh fund towards ramping up its team, furthering growth and scaling efforts, and the development of an array of new products aimed at solving all the major pain points faced by users.

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In 2022, the company had raised funds from a clutch of angel investors, including co-founders of Sirona Hygiene and Clovia. Later, What's Up Wellness also featured in Shark Tank India Season 2, wherein it secured a funding of Rs 60 lakh from three sharks on the show -- Aman Gupta (BoAt), Vineeta Singh (Sugar Cosmetics), and Anupam Mittal (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.

What's Up Wellness, which offers gummy supplements, has till date served more than 2.5 lakh users across India and plans to launch 12 new products in next two years.

The company grew more than 12 times last year. With current accounting rate of return (ARR) at Rs 30 crore and 40 per cent repeat users, What's Up Wellness said it aims to become a Rs 100 crore-brand within the next two years.

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