Fitterfly, a healthtech startup working in the field of digital health and therapeutics, on Wednesday announced that it has raised $12 million in its Series A funding round. In another development, First Cheque has closed its second fund at $5 million (Rs 38 crore).
Fitterfly snags $12m funding
Fitterfly, a healthtech startup working in the field of digital health and therapeutics, on Wednesday announced that it has raised $12 million in its Series A funding round led by Amazon Smbhav Venture Fund and Fireside Ventures.
The co-investors in the round include 9Unicorns; Venture Catalysts; Nihar Parikh, founder of 4point0 Health Ventures; and Sriram Natarajan, founder of Molbio, the startup said in a statement.
The funding will be used to increase the reach of Diabefly, Fitterfly’s digital therapeutics and clinically-proven programme to prevent, manage and reverse diabetes. It will also be used to enhance the firm’s technology stack.
“This funding will help us strengthen our research, launch new verticals in the heart health space and grow our customer base by reaching out to people living with diabetes as well as the universe of doctors and organisations in the field of chronic disease management,” said Dr Arbinder Singal, CEO and co-founder, Fitterfly.
Founded in 2016 by Singal and Shailesh Gupta, Fitterfly has raised a total of $16.6 million since inception. The startup claims to have managed over 20,000 patients till date.
First Cheque closes second fund
Early-stage venture capital firm First Cheque has closed its second fund at $5 million (Rs 38 crore) with an aim to invest in companies at the pre-stage stages, it announced on Wednesday.
The firm will focus on first-time founders and will invest $100,000 in each of its portfolio companies, it said in a statement.
First Cheque also said it has a sector-agnostic approach and is open to backing founding teams at the paper-plan stage. It plans to invest in 50 startups over the next 18 months.
“We are looking to back aspirational founders with lesser emphasis on conventional prerequisites such as the educational pedigree, previous founding experience and conviction from other VCs. In our investment decision, ‘Founder Market Fit’ will take precedence over these factors,” said Prateek Agarwal, investment lead, First Cheque.
The closure of its second fund takes the firm’s total assets under management (AUM) to Rs 90 crore. Bengaluru-based First Cheque has so far invested in over 100 ventures.