Natural medicines find resonance

With alternative medicines like ayurveda and naturopathy gaining ground in our society, these are now being tapped by India's budding start-ups.

CureJoy, an online health advisory platform, provides its users natural health and wellness content, prepared by experts and doctors across the globe. One may ask questions to experts and get reliable and timely advice for free. Started by Dikshant Dave and Srini Sharma in October 2013, the start-up raised $4.4 million recently from existing investor AccelPartners India. Prior to this, it had raised $1.5 million.

CureJoy has a strong foothold in the US and the country accounts for 40 per cent of the user base. India makes a fifth of its base.

"When we started, this space was fragmented (non-conventional health care). We thought the space was growing and as we built our base, we saw we had a lead in terms of user base and access to experts," says Dikshant Dave, co-founder and chief executive officer.

The company plans to use the money for setting up of sub-verticals or adjacent properties which would include beauty, yoga, parenting and nutrition. Due to a drastic increase in video consumption in over recent quarters, we have also decided to increase the video production capacity, says Dave.

He says creating strong content and the changing landscape are a challenge. with a user base of 12 to 14 million per month, the start-up aims to attract 25-million visitors by the end of this year. It has also a strong presence on social media platforms and 80 per cent of the its traffic comes via mobile.