Bengaluru- headquartered fitness startup Curefit has raised $10 Mn in debt financing from two major banks, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank. According to reports, this latest debt financing is part of the earlier debt financing round that took place in August last year. That round was led by Trifecta Capital and Prathithi Investment Trust, with both parties investing nearly $3.2 Mn (INR 20.55 Cr). As per some unconfirmed reports, Curefit may raise further funding in coming months to cater to its capital expenditure.
Speaking on the latest fundraising, CureFit co-founder Mukesh Bansal stated that almost 80% of their capital expenditure is financed through debt funding and the trend is most likely to continue in the future. He added further that banks attitude towards startup has undergone significant change, but maintained that they tend to backup those startups that operate on asset-heavy model.
CureFit will be using most of the latest funds in marketing strategy, enhancing its technological capabilities and improving facilities at its cult fitness centers, according to Bansal.
Ever since its inception in 2016, Curefit has been successfully raising big funding rounds. In fact, this Bengaluru based fitness firm is one of the well-funded startups in the entire Indian startup eco system. This is no small achievement by any means, given that Curefit started its journey nearly the same time when funding drought had just about began to hit the Indian startup world real hard.
With Curefit defying the funding odds quite easily, this startup not surprisingly has a penchant for some big spending. From spending big on acquisition to signing a 100 crore endorsement deal with Bollywood superstar Hrithik Roshan, Curefit has never really shied from taking bets. Bansal and his other co-founder Ankit Nagori have justified these aggressive business decisions by claiming that they will pay off in the long run.
However, not all seem to be pleased with unconventional methods adopted by Curefit’s co-founders. Some industry experts have raised concerns that unabated spending may lead to cash burn, which can create lots of problems in future if the startup fails to establish a business model that can generate regular revenue stream. In the past, negative factors like huge cash burn and inability to establish profitable business models have led to shutdown of many high profile startups.
Curefit currently has three verticals: eatfit, cultfit and mindfit. As of now, services of all these three verticals are available only in Bengaluru and Gurgaon, but the company certainly has plans to expand across other parts of the country.