Fitterfly, a two-year-old health tech startup, has raised $3.1 million (roughly Rs 22.5 crore) in a funding round led by venture capital firm Fireside Ventures, which will now own a major stake in the company.

Other venture capital firms, including 9Unicorns and Venture Catalysts, as well as a slew of angel investors, took part in the round. The funds will be used to improve patient outcomes at scale, raise awareness, and extend the scope, according to the organisation.

Fitterfly is a digital therapeutics (DTx) health tech start-up established and operated by a team of doctors, engineers, and senior nutritionists.

Fitterfly had previously raised $1 million in seed funding from high net-worth individuals (HNIs), relatives, and friends. Arbinder Singal, Shailesh Gupta, and Jayesh Sawant co-founded the company.

Fitterfly, which launched in December 2019, provides personalised digital therapeutics (DTx) programmes for diabetes, breastfeeding, polycystic ovary syndrome, and obesity. Senior physicians, nutritionists, psychologists, fitness specialists, management experts, and technologists make up the team's 140+ members.

Fitterfly's DTx programmes, which are designed to supplement doctors' medical counseling, provide 360-degree advice on diet, exercise, sleep, stress, and other factors that influence health outcomes. According to CEO Singal, more than 10,000 people have already signed up.

Four years ago, the Fitterfly team began compiling a clinical nutrition database, which they then tested by developing disease-specific nutrition advisory algorithms. It introduced DTx in late 2019 in response to a significant unmet need for remote assistance in improving outcomes.

“Covid-19 has pushed remote monitoring and digital therapeutics to the forefront of medicine,” said Singal. “We are solving difficult problems—be it diabetes, obesity, women’s health, or child health, through our innovative digital therapeutics solutions. These problems affect almost 30-40% of the population in India. We are seeing good support from doctors as a prescription product, saving their time and helping them achieve better outcomes.”

Fitterfly is Fireside Ventures' first investment in the telemedicine and digital health space, having previously backed companies such as boAt, Mamaearth, Vahdam, and Yogabar.

“In the current post-pandemic era, we at Fireside believe that brands, platforms and enterprises that address and serve well-being, holistic living and health needs and concerns of consumers, have acquired greater acceptance,” said Kanwaljit Singh, managing partner at Fireside Ventures, who will now join Fitterfly as a board member. “Consumers are now amenable and willing to consider and adopt digital solutions that promise to improve and enhance their quality of life and keep them in a state of good health. The segment of digital therapeutics represents an incredible growth opportunity for us.”

According to industry estimates, India has 80 million diabetics and 90 million prediabetics, with 70 percent of the population expected to develop diabetes in the next five to seven years. Of the 170 million people, 25% will be from the lower middle class and above, and will be mobile-friendly or digitally conscious.“Which is 45 million people who can benefit from digital therapeutics for diabetes,” said Singal

The demand for medicines, equipment, and diagnostics is projected to rise fourfold to $8 billion from $2 billion in the next five years, according to the estimates, with a compounded annual growth rate of 16.5 percent.