MassMutual Ventures leads Series A for India's Sugarfit
Sugarfit, an India-based health technology start-up that helps people manage type-two diabetes with a view to reversing the condition, has raised USD 11m in Series A funding.
The round was led by MassMutual Ventures and featured existing investors Tanglin Venture Partners, Endiya Partners, and Curefit. Health and fitness app Curefit has previously received more than USD 600m in VC funding, much of which has been used to bankroll bolt-on acquisitions.
Founded in 2021, Sugarfit secured USD 10m in seed funding in September of that year. Curefit led the round with support from Tanglin and Endiya.
The company uses continuous glucose monitoring technology (CGM) to deliver real-time insights into how dietary and lifestyle choices are impacting users’ blood sugar levels. This dovetails with a holistic solution that involves personalised coaching, health tracking devices, and analytics.
Sugarfit said in a social media post that its business has grown eightfold in the past 18 months, positively impacting the lives of 25,000 users.
According to its website, users with blood glucose levels of at least 8% have on average experienced a 1.9% drop in glycated haemoglobin – a key indicator of type-two diabetes – and have lost at least 3 kilograms within three months. In addition, 90% have reduced or eliminated their diabetes medication with 92% cutting their reliance on insulin.
Type-two diabetes – which is lifestyle-related and develops over time, unlike the type-one variety that is driven by genetics and emerges early in life – afflicts 101m people in India, according to a study published earlier this year in medical journal The Lancet. It also found that 136m people, or 15.3% of India’s population, could be living with pre-diabetes.
An earlier study by the World Health Organisation (WHO) put the number of type-two diabetes sufferers aged 18 and above at 77m, with a further 25m classified as prediabetic. The WHO said that over 50% are unaware of their diabetic status, which leads to health complications if not detected and treated early.
MassMutual Ventures is deploying its third Asia fund, which launched in 2022 with a corpus of USD 300m. Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance is the sole LP. The geographic remit has broadened with each vintage. Fund I (USD 50m) was Southeast Asia-only; Fund II (USD 100m) added India, Australia and New Zealand, and Hong Kong; and Fund III is Asia ex-China plus Europe.
Digital health, financial technology, software-as-a-service (SaaS), and cybersecurity are the primary target verticals.
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