New Delhi-based health and wellness brand, Welly, raises $400K in a Seed round from Anthill Ventures. Founded by Urvi Raghbeer, Welly was selected under Athena, a one-of-a-kind scaling program by Anthill ventures supporting women founders. The funds raised will be utilized by Welly to expand the product portfolio, increase the customer base, and grow the team among others.
Welly is a health and wellness brand, bringing a dose of happiness to your daily dose of health. Consumers today are becoming increasingly health conscious and are wanting to take care of their health – but, at the same time, no one wants to pop a pill daily for their vitamin/mineral requirements. Welly brings a fresh perspective to this space. The brand currently has 3 products: vitamin gummies for Restful Sleep, for Immunity Boost, and for healthy hair, skin and nails. Their current products are for adults, have science-backed formulations, are tasty and have no added sugar. Welly wants customers to look forward to taking their vitamins and helps them form a habit they enjoy.
Urvi Raghbeer, Founder & CEO at Welly, has studied at Parsons School of Design and has a unique take on building brands through her experience in design and technology. She also completed an Executive Education Program from Harvard Business School and believes that design and business go hand-in-hand in today’s world. The packaging design and playful brand positioning of Welly sets the brand apart from the other players in the space. Their delicious gummies, packed in fun and collectible tins, are a hit with the consumers.
“In an increasingly competitive environment, Welly stands out with its excellent product, unique formulations and great unit economics. Furthermore, their focus on the burgeoning sleep science ecosystem sets them as leaders in a massive and relatively untapped market. Anthill is proud to support Welly and such a strong second-time founder as Urvi,” said Kabir Kochhar, Partner at Anthill Ventures. Anthill invests in and partners with courageous entrepreneurs, to build companies of the future, that scale with speed. It invests in strong consumer brands that are identifying a white space and operating with strong gross margins. They have invested in Boldcare (men’s personal care), Wiggles (petcare) and Welly, to name a few.
This category has received a lot of traction lately as health and wellness become important for consumers post-COVID. We see this validated by Power Gummies’ $6 million fundraise by 9Unicorns and Wellbeing Nutrition’s $2.2 million fundraise by Fireside Ventures. As per research, The Indian Dietary Supplement market is a 3.9 billion dollar opportunity, with the Vitamins and Minerals category making up for 40% of it, estimating it at a 1.5 billion dollar market size.
Speaking on the business side, Urvi Raghbeer, Founder & CEO at Welly commented, “We are excited to be the only gummy brand to receive institutional funding within six months from launch. With this round, we plan to grow our team and expand our product offerings within the nutraceutical space. I am proud of what we’ve achieved in such a short span of time with a small team and only 3 products. The support from Anthill Ventures will now help us scale exponentially.”
This round saw participation from Roshan Abbas, prominent angel investor, and Allu Sneha Reddy (Tollywood star of Pushpa fame Allu Arjun’s wife).