SFW Market to touch $90bn by 2022: Praxis Global Alliance

Praxis Global Alliance, a global business research and solutions firm, along with its thought partner YourNest, an early stage venture capital fund today unveiled a global report on the emerging market of Sports, Fitness and Wellness (SFW) market in India. The report highlights the potential of SFW market to grow from $35 billion in 2016 to $90 billion by 2022 at a CAGR of 17 percent in India. The report titled 'Health is indeed Wealth' confirms the trend of growing health awareness with 45 percent people prioritizing healthy life and 60 percent and 21 percent disapproving of smoking and drinking simultaneously.

Among the key consumer categories like apparel, food, etc. of ~USD 203 billion, the SFW play stands at $35 billion in 2016. The report points out the huge growth opportunity for the play in India across sectors. The report also highlights the catalyzing impact on the peripheral products and services industry that will create 2.5 times more opportunities in SFW segment. While developed markets like South Korea and Canada has per capita spend on sportswear and functional food at $128 and $45 simultaneously, India has huge growth headroom with current per capita spending on sportswear and functional food market standing ata small $7.7 and $2 respectively.

While releasing the report, Nidhi Agarwal, Entrepreneur in Residence at YourNest and Domain Leader with Praxis commented, "Wellness and wellness inspired Fitness is at the same stage basic healthcare was 7-10 years back. With the affordability that virtual channels extends to companies and increasing need of customer to monitor wellness / fitness with technology, higher allocation of income has started to emerge. This will increasingly include mental wellness, sports as fitness regimes etc. which then opens the purchase basket for likes of advanced wearables and monitoring technologies as well."

Madhur Singhal, Managing Director with Praxis Global Alliance, said, "Most of our Consumer goods and services clients are getting more sophisticated and nuanced about segmentation. Millennials want to live better, eat better and feel better and SFW-led brands will grow in appeal due to the promise of a more fulfilling consumption experience."

Sunil Goyal, Managing Director and Fund Manager, YourNest said, "This report highlights the huge potential of Indian SFW segment which is evident with increasing investments in the sector. SFW is attracting investment not only from VC and PE funds but several profitable verticals. As investors focused on evolving technologies, we are already invested in this space through COVE net which is an end to end SMART IoT wearable's platform and Momspresso, which is India's largest platform for wellness of Moms. YourNest will continue to focus on investing in breakthrough deep technologies that will cater to changing consumer needs and demands."

According to the report, growth in the SFW segment will be driven by categories like beauty treatments, fortified / functional packaged food, sports, personal care products, beauty centers and dietary supplements that are likely to grow at a CAGR of 20-30 percent till 2022. Increasing affluence, sedentary lifestyle, increasing awareness about fitness and development in sports infrastructure has led to greater consumer interest towards the segment that has in turn led to larger investor interest in sports, fitness and wellness (SFW) segment.