HealthifyMe ventures into Southeast Asia, sees rising demand from healthconscious consumers
KUALA LUMPUR: HealthifyMe announced its expansion plans that will see them venturing into the Southeast Asian region, beginning with a foray into Malaysia followed by Indonesia and Singapore in the next three to six months.
First launched in 2012, HealthifyMe now has over eight million users worldwide offering highly localised calorie tracking with over 55,000 foods as well as water consumption, weight, steps and activity tracking complemented by automated and real-time insights.
The company launched its services in Malaysia in October 2018 and has already attracted over 15,000 subscribers with more than 25 local coaches, trainers and experts.
Speaking at HealthifyMe’s annual showcase event, Ignite, Tushar Vashisht, co-founder and CEO, HealthifyMe said, “We have chosen to begin our foray into Southeast Asia due to the high penetration of smart phones and to fill the need for quality health and fitness solutions in the region.
“We believe Malaysia is a representative microcosm of the entire region and a great place to start. Personally, I love Malaysia’s cultural nuances and we are excited to bring our unique approach to Malaysia’s shores, offering a highly localised and curated experience to users there, with the same level of depth in terms of food library, quality of coaches and technology support, that our global users enjoy.”
HealthifyMe has already seen some promising traction in Southeast Asia with over 46,000 subscribers joining the platform in the last month and 1.3 million food and water logs being tracked.
The app possesses a library of over 900 Southeast Asian cuisines with accurate protein, fibre, carbohydrate & calorie mapping. The company has also hired a team of local nutritionist and fitness coaches who will develop personalised diet & fitness plans for its Southeast Asian users.
HealthifyMe’s Malaysia head of Operations Alexandra Prabaharan said, “I am excited to be a part of this global company that is on a mission to Healthify the world. With Malaysian’s becoming increasingly conscious about health and fitness, HealthifyMe’s entry is both exciting and timely.”
HealthifyMe also announced it had raised a further US$ 6 million as an extension to its US$ 12 million Series B round earlier this year from existing investors and InnoVen Capital (a Temasek backed entity) to fund the regional expansion as well as other new features and initiatives.
HealthifyMe already has the world’s first artificial intelligence powered virtual nutritionist – Ria. ‘She’ provides personalised diet and fitness advice to its global users and complements the services provided by its elite pool of human coaches.
Today, the company unveiled an upgraded version of Ria - Ria 2.0. ‘She’ can now not only listen and read, but also see & identify healthy & unhealthy foods from menu cards, phone screens and entire plates of food.
Ria 2.0 will power HealthifyMe’s smart diet plans which represent the world’s first completely automated & curated diet plans.