Healthkart to double offline store count in three months, expanding drug search marketplace Healthkartplus to more cities

Gurgaon-based startup Bright Lifecare Pvt Ltd, which runs the online health store Healthkart.com and the drug search marketplace Healthkartplus.com, has opened its fourth offline store in the country and the first one in Bangalore. The company had started its offline expansion in 2012 and currently has two stores in Delhi and one in Chandigarh besides the latest unit.

Talking to Techcircle.in, Prashant Tandon, co-founder and MD of Healthkart, said the company is bullish on the hybrid online-offline retail model. It is looking to double the count of such ofline stores, which are company run, in other metro cities by the end of current financial year. After Bangalore, some other cities under evaluation are Mumbai, Chennai or Hyderabad.

Without sharing specific transaction numbers from the stores, Tandon said, "Our first two stores have already reached break-even."

Talking to Techcircle.in earlier, Tandon had stated that the reason for opening brick-and-mortar stores was that the offline retail market for fitness products is significantly large but underdeveloped.

Going forward, the startup would be focusing heavily on using mobile interface to expand the business. "We recently brought in Gaurav Agarwal as CTO, and with him on board, mobile is our core focus area," Tandon said.

The drug search marketplace Healthkartplus is also geared up for further expansion. After Bangalore and Mumbai, the company is looking at increasing its reach to few more cities in the coming months.

Founded in 2011 by Tandon and Sameer Maheshwari, Healthkart sells products in a broad range of categories such as fitness & nutrition supplements, sports nutrition, health devices, personal care, eye care and parenting, as well as the recently added home appliances section.

The firm had recently closed an undisclosed amount in Series B funding led by Intel Capital, with participation from existing investors, including Sequoia Capital. Earlier, it had raised $1 million in seed funding from Kae Capital and Sequoia Capital, followed by a Series A round worth Rs 27 crore from Sequoia and Omidyar Network.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)