Grow Fit Works to Feed Body and Mind

“Over 300 million Indians are at risk of lifestyle disease and have nowhere to turn to for support. Lifestyle disease is estimated to rack up over $54 billion in lost income in 2015 alone. While the problem is too large for the medical system to address, Grow Fit believes in empowering Indians to prevent and in many cases, reverse lifestyle disease by addressing its root causes - nutrition, mental wellness, stress, sleep and activity through a combination of expert advice and functional products”, says Ms. Jyotsna.

Grow Fit was started by Jyotsna Pattabiraman, CEO, Grow Fit, in September 2015 as an EIR with Growth Story. The company addresses prevention of lifestyle disease through a combination of data science, medical science and behavioral insights. Here’s more on Grow Fit from its CEO.

How does Grow Fit work?

Grow Fit is a comprehensive health companion that offers expert advice (via a mobile app) as well as therapeutic and functional foods. Through the Grow Fit mobile app, users can connect with trained therapists, clinical nutritionists and experienced cosmetologists to discover personalised solutions that are right for them.

They can act on those solutions by themselves or by leveraging our food products, which include fresh foods (ready-to-eat) as well as staples (packaged foods).

Our fresh foods are targeted at the urban professional or homemaker and aims to fuel their healthy lifestyles and reverse lifestyle disease. Our staples (packaged foods) ship across India and are meant for people that want to make healthy nutrition a practice for the entire family.

We have also launched Grow Self, a mental wellness app where clients chat with trained counselors about their daily life issues. The anonymity of mobile chat helps ease the stigma connected to seeking help. We have a young user base of below 25 years whom we have helped get clarity in key issues in their life.

Tell us a little about these price points of your products

Personalised expert advice starts at INR 199/week, however the most popular packages are our 4-week and 8-week programmes.

We offer fresh foods (in Bangalore only) at INR 1799 + delivery. This works out to INR 300 per meal, which also includes a drink, a snack and supplements.
Staples/packaged foods start at INR 500. A comprehensive packaged meal plan, which includes 18 meals, works out to INR 2199. This includes portion-controlled staples such as low-carb quinoa mix, millets and black rice for main courses as well as pre-packed, portion-controlled breakfasts and snacks. These ship across India.

And what's special about Grow Fit?

Focus on data and outcomes: Through our mobile app, Grow Fit, which has about 100,000 users currently, we've learned that Indians are eating diets that are encumbered by excess sugar and refined grains. Armed with this information, Grow Fit not only educates people on how to eat healthy and exercise right, we formulate foods that help Indians prevent lifestyle disease.

Notable features of our functional foods:

1. All of our foods are low carb. They aim to reduce your daily carb intake to about 200 g. of carbs a day. We avoid sugar, honey, jaggery, dates and most fruits.

2.Within low carb, we offer two programmes -

- The Lean Machine Programme: Ultra-low carb programme derived from a medical protocol, keeping carbs at under 50g/day
- The Stay Fit Programme: A low GI programme that keeps carbs under 200 g. a day and offers a great deal of fibre for improved gut health and day-long energy

3. We re-interpret familiar foods in a low-carb fashion so that people enjoy their meals while meeting their health goals. For example, Black Rice Biriyani or Quinoa Roti are some of our innovations.

4. We take extra care in sourcing, using organic ingredients and many that are hard to find. One cannot get our foods off the shelf. Quinoa, for example, costs INR 700/kilogramme and many of the ingredients are so hard to find that they are priced by the gram.

Challenges

Helping customers change their habits is a challenging task. That said, through the bond between expert and customer, we have helped many customers shed weight, improve their metrics and feel more empowered.

We are generating our own intellectual property rather than cutting and pasting from western studies. This makes the going harder, but the results are well worth it.

Funding status and monetization

We are backed by Growth Story, the venture-builder platform, as well as other prominent investors. We monetise on personalised advice as well as through functional foods.

Details of the marketing plans, market size & opportunity.

Studies conducted by Grow Fit reveal that 300 million Indians in the 36 - 60 age group suffer from invisible and asymptomatic lifestyle diseases. The World Economic Forum (WEF) estimates the economic burden of treating lifestyle diseases in India would be close to $6.2 trillion for the period 2012-2030.

Young India today, confused by the opportunistic advice given them by the food industry, is searching wildly for answers and the right kind of support. With the breakdown of traditional norms, local communities are no longer a way of finding that support and coaching. This is especially telling as the majority of Grow Fit app users hail from tier-2 and tier-3 cities. The country’s young people are, therefore, ready to look outside their immediate circles for the information they need to take charge of their health.

Future plans of the company

Grow Fit intends to become your comprehensive daily health companion. Thus, we have launched skin and hair health services designed to keep up with today's lifestyle. Our future plans include treatments for infertility and issues related to pregnant and lactating women, joint health, stress management and more, all through the mobile.