[Funding alert] Elda Health raises seed funding of $1.5M from Avaana Capital, Orios Ventures, and Ananth Narayanan Family office

Elda Health, a women-led one stop holistic health platform for the mid-age urban woman, has announced it has raised $1.5 million in a seed round from Avaana Capital, Orios Ventures, and Ananth Narayanan Family Office.

The funding will enable the Bengaluru-based brand to scale up its offerings, operations, hire new talent, onboard health and wellness professionals and doctors to expand its circle of expertise. Elda serves as an everyday companion for midlife women on their healthcare journey, empowering them with measurable health outcomes. 

The startup was founded by Swathi Kulkarni, Sindhuri Ananth and Shubham Sharma. Swathi and Sindhuri are cousins who grew up in families with medical backgrounds, and they along with Shubham share a collective passion to scale healthcare access.

An ISB alumnus, Swathi is a seasoned entrepreneur with over 17+ years of experience across brands like Nua, Komli, Amazon and more. An MSc in Computer Software engineering, Sindhuri has over 10+ years of experience having worked at KPMG and Intel in her previous roles.

Speaking to HerStory, Swathi said,

"My father was an army gynaecologist and feminine hygiene and healthcare conversations were common at home. And Sindhuri's father was with Apollo, and we grew up in that setup. Shubham on the other hand is a BITS Pilani graduate who has been passionate about healthcare. It was then we got together to make a difference in the space."

She added that while there was a general focus on health, they wanted to focus deeper on women's health. Swathi says they looked at feminine hygiene from the start of a woman's menstrual cycle to menopause.

"We realised that in our country, people celebrate puberty and pregnancy, but women's healthcare needs are deeper and aren't answered. When we started doing the customer journey we realised women over the age of 35 face several issues, and there is no where they can get the right solutions and answers for," added Swathi.

The trio decided to focus on normalising the experience. Through a dynamic dashboard, Elda helps users track the entire spectrum from symptoms to activities, and via a comprehensive reporting mechanism map progress made on health goals.

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"We spoke to 200 odd women before we started work on this, and set up small Whatsapp communities before we built Elda," adds Swathi.

Leveraging its panel of experts, Elda offers customised health pathways that include personalised consultations with medical experts, and curated information to help build awareness around critical physical and mental health concerns. 

Anup Jain, Managing Partner, Orios Ventures, said in the press note, “As an early-stage startup, Elda’s mission to innovate for India's women healthcare issues that have remained unaddressed for generations, really resonated with us. Elda's healthtech platform will no doubt create a disruption in this new space that is valued at $600 billion globally. We are excited to partner with the Elda team on their journey to reimagine the women's healthcare industry” 

Elda Health was founded with an aim to make healthcare equal & accessible for women over the age of 35 across the stages of awareness, precaution, diagnosis, and cure. Elda’s mission finds its roots in the fact that for far too long, women’s health and their specific healthcare needs have been stigmatised.

Speaking of their investment in Elda Health, Shruti Srivastava, Principal, Avaana Capital, said in a conversation with HerStory,

"We at Avaana Capital look for businesses that are targeting large problems, and creating large commercial outcomes by solving them. And women's health in 50 percent of the population is an ignored and underserved segment. Women of the age group do spend on health, but they end up spending on curative measures. We liked the way the Elda team looked at the space and the market, and the segment needs 360 degree support."

Elda Health was founded with an aim of making healthcare equal and accessible for women over the age of 35 across the stages of awareness, precaution, diagnosis and cure. Elda’s mission finds its roots in the fact that for far too long, women’s health and their specific healthcare needs have been stigmatised.

Shruti says, "Women have started prioritising their health, and this segment has been underserved. Digital health platforms serve as an effective way of bridging the gap and create the needed nudge and support."