Diabetes Reversal Company Breathe Well-Being Raises Rs 50 Crore in Pre-Series B

Diabetes Reversal company Breathe Well-being has raised Rs 50 crores in a Pre-Series B round co-led by 3One4 Capital, Accel and General Catalyst. The round also saw participation from FounderBank Capital and Supermorpheus. The company will use the funds to strengthen its coaching academy, expand the core team, and scale up the technology platform to enhance customer experience.

Breathe Well-being offers a simple and effective alternative to medicines to prevent, manage and reverse Type 2 Diabetes. The Gurgaon based health-tech startup was founded by Rohan Verma (ex-McKinsey) & Aditya Kaicker (ex-Accenture) in 2020 who come with a deep understanding of healthcare, wellness and life sciences domain. The team strongly believes that medication is not a long-term solution for diabetes and instead focuses on behavioural & lifestyle changes for Diabetes reversal and reducing the risk of chronic lifestyle diseases.

Rohan Verma, Co-founder and CEO, Breathe Well-being says, “India is the diabetes capital of the world and we are on a mission to change that. Our aim is a Diabetes Mukt Bharat (Diabetes Free India) with the aim to reverse diabetes for 1 Million Indians by 2025 and we are well on track to achieve that goal. Referral is our strongest growth lever especially in non-metros and more than half our customers come through word of mouth.”

Radhika Ananth, Vice President, Accel, “We have been impressed by how quickly Breathe Well-being is becoming a household name for Type 2 Diabetes & Pre-Diabetes Reversal across Tier 2 and 3 cities of India. I realised the true value of what Rohan and Aditya are building at Breathe Well-being after seeing my own mother go through the program and reduce her HbA1c levels significantly. Hence Accel invested and we continue to back them in their vision of building a Diabetes Mukt Bharat.”

India's first clinically-proven Diabetes Reversal Program by Breathe helps reduce HbA1c levels, lose weight, improve glucose tolerance and stop diabetes medication eventually. Their program has a proven outcome with 95%+ participants showing an average reduction of 1.5% in their HbA1c levels, 98%+ participants eliminating medication and experiencing an average weight loss of 5.5 kg over the course of the program which has been recognised by the American Diabetes Association (ADA).

Aditya Kaicker, Co-Founder and COO, Breathe Well-being says, “In our experience, game design and community driven programs deliver far superior health outcomes. We are seeing the highest level of efficacy and the magic happens when there’s strict adherence to the protocols. We have seen more than 90% of participants were able to sustain their results beyond 24 months into the program. This is a big indicator of how engaging our entire plan is and people’s active willingness to get off the diabetes medication.  ”

Breathe is the only digital health tech company across Asia to have published clinical evidence in 3 journals; American Diabetes Association, European Society of Endocrinology, and the American Association of Clinical Endocrinology. With strong conviction in its program and their medical care team, Breathe is taking its promise of a diabetes-free life a notch higher with their “No Outcome, No Pay” policy - Diabetic patients pay only if they see a significant reduction in the HbA1c levels or medication reduction else the fees is refunded.

Because of the strong clinical evidence and proven results, many of the leading Diabetologists & medical practitioners in India are using Breathe Well-being to help their patients with lifestyle modifications and adherence. Dr P. K. Goyal, MBBS, MD & DNB General Medicine, Fortis Hospital, New Delhi, says, “According to the latest guidelines by ADA, the first line of therapy for Type 2 Diabetes is Diabetes Education and lifestyle modifications. The biggest challenge any medical practitioner faces with Diabetic patients is the time required for Diabetes Education and customising the lifestyle modifications to create behavioural change. This is exactly where Breathe Well-being has proven to be a big boon in my practice. Complimenting my medical practice with powerful lifestyle modifications powered by Breathe is helping my patients get outstanding results for their Diabetes Management & Remission.”

Breathe Well-being’s current core team comprises people from IITs, BITS Pilani, top tier consulting firms like McKinsey, Accenture and is rapidly expanding across Product, Growth, Technology & Analytics. In the long term, Breathe wants to extend its digital therapeutic offerings to other chronic conditions, such as hypertension, PCOS, gut disorders, etc., and establish itself as a leading health & wellness player globally.