The investment—for which Tata Digital has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Curefit—is subject to completion of the diligence process and other approvals, according to a statement on Monday.
ET was the first to report on the
Tata-Curefit deal on May 27.
It wasn’t immediately clear at what valuation Tata has invested in Curefit. The company was last valued at around $800 million, just before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic last year, when Singapore’s Temasek
had invested in the firm.
Curefit, which counts Tata Group’s Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata as an early investor, is the third significant startup investment by the salt-to-software conglomerate as it looks to build its digital play against the likes of Amazon India, Reliance and Walmart-Flipkart. It recently completed the acquisition of
BigBasket and is in the process of buying
1mg. Bansal, who co-founded online fashion retailer Myntra, has been running Curefit for the past five years. He launched the venture with Ankit Nagori, a senior executive from Flipkart.
In his new role, Bansal will work closely with Tata Digital CEO Pratik Pal.
“With his (Mukesh Bansal’s) deep consumer experience and an entrepreneurial mindset of having incubated and grown two very successful businesses, his expertise will bring immense value to us,” said N Chandrasekaran, chairman of Tata Sons Pvt. Ltd.
Bansal said joining Tata Digital marks an “exciting new step” for him and his team.
“Being part of Tata Digital will enable us to nationally scale our offerings for our customers. Tata Digital has a highly inspiring vision to create a next-generation consumer platform…,” Bansal said.
A spokesperson for Tata Digital declined to share further details.
Bansal joined Flipkart after Myntra was sold and worked closely with its founders, especially Sachin Bansal (no relation). In 2016, he started Curefit with Ankit Nagori, a former senior Flipkart executive. The fitness startup has been severely impacted by the pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns, forcing it to shutter several of its Cult and Fitness First gyms.
After the first Covid-19 wave last year, Curefit, which also operated Eatfit, shut several of its cloud kitchens that served online food orders, along with offline outlets.
In May last year, the company backed by venture capital funds Accel, Kalaari Capital and Chiratae Ventures, laid off almost 10% (around 800) of its staff along with enforcing pay cuts across levels as its gyms remained shut. In July, Curefit again furloughed another 500 of its employees, in addition to exiting from small cities and ending plans to expand into foreign markets like the United Arab Emirates. The company also tried shifting its fitness and gym business online with a digital-first approach through streaming sessions.
Though it resumed physical operations late last year, the ongoing second wave has forced the company to shut its offline gyms.
Meanwhile, Bansal and Nagori also undertook a significant restructuring at the firm.
Curefit said the cloud kitchen business, Eatfit, will be run as an independent entity, outside of the group. Nagori is now running this business, which recently revamped its branding and logo.
