Why Mukesh Bansal's startup Cure.fit is betting on groceries with Whole.fit

When Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori started Cure.fit in 2017, there was much talk on what the startup would do. While a health and fitness startup seemed like an obvious choice for the duo, what was interesting was that it had already raised a significant capital without an app. 

In the early days, Mukesh Bansal had told YourStory, “Cure.fit isn’t just about fitness. We are looking to build an entire healthcare ecosystem. It starts with fitness, then there is food, mental well-being, and prevention.” 

From then on, the brand has launched different verticals - subscription based food with eat.fit, fitness centres with cult.fit, diagnostic services with care.fit and mental well-being with mind.fit.

However, in December last year, the team launched whole.fit to offer clean packaged food options to its customers.

Speaking about the launch, Sachin K, Business Head, eat.fit, says, "Earlier last year, we started our own marketplace vertical, which was also named Whole.Fit. The marketplace offers curated packaged food selection, which have a strong "Better for You" positioning, and currently has a selection of around 500 SKUs spread across 20+ food categories like staples and spices, breakfast cereals, instant foods, health supplements, snacks and namkeens, beverages, sauces and spreads to name a few. Whole.Fit marketplace services entire Bengaluru city now, and in 2020 we plan to expand our coverage to 10 cities across the country, with more than 3,000 SKUs and 50+ categories. "

Speaking of why they entered this segment, Sachin says, the journey at eat.fit started as an 'Attach Category' limited to product options and serving sizes, which complemented the meals served. Categories like juice, yogurt, and some baked snacks were the limited assortment the business started with.

"As we continued to grow and expand, it emerged that customers were looking to have a wider selection of packaged food products. There are very few clean packaged food options available in the market, which further steamed the need to expand the category taking a customer backwards view," says Sachin.

This led to deeper collaboration with brand partners and vendors across multiple food categories like beverages, snacks and namkeens, trail mixes, yogurts, nutrition bars, etc. Sachin explains the need was felt to create a brand for the private/white labelled packaged food offerings of eat.fit, and this gave birth to whole.fit.

"Today, whole.fit plays a very pertinent role in the eat.fit offerings, completing the meals for the customers and also help drive the AOV (Average Order Value) of the business, and has already become close to 20 percent contributor to the eat.fit revenues. In a limited span of time, brand whole.fit has also established strong business collaborations with leading FMCG food players like RAW Pressery, Epigamia, and Bagrrys, and has launched exclusive co-branded SKUs with them."

(Edited by Megha Reddy)

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