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Diabetes reversal startup Breathe Well-being has raised Rs 50 crore in pre-series B funding co-led by 3One4 Capital, Accel Partners, and General Catalyst, with participation from FounderBank Capital and Supermorpheus. 

The Gurugram-based startup said it will use the funds to strengthen its coaching academy, expand the core team, and scale up the technology platform to enhance customer experience. 

“Our aim is a diabetes Mukt Bharat (diabetes free India) with the aim to reverse diabetes for one 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,” said Rohan Verma, Co-founder and CEO, Breathe Well-being. 

Founded by Rohan Verma (ex-McKinsey) and Aditya Kaicker (ex-Accenture) in 2020, Breathe Well-being offers an alternative to medicines to prevent, manage, and reverse Type 2 diabetes. The team believes that medication is not a long-term solution for diabetes and instead focuses on behavioural and lifestyle changes for diabetes reversal and reducing the risk of chronic lifestyle diseases.

“We have been impressed by how quickly Breathe Well-being is becoming a household name for Type 2 diabetes and pre-diabetes reversal across Tier-II and III cities of India,” said Radhika Ananth, Vice President, Accel Partners.

“I realised the true value of what Rohan and Aditya are building at Breathe Well-being after seeing my own mother go through the programme and reduce her HbA1c levels significantly. Hence, Accel invested and we continue to back them in their vision of building a diabetes Mukt Bharat.”

Breathe Well-being’s Diabetes Reversal programme, which is clinically-proven, helps reduce HbA1c levels, lose weight, improve glucose tolerance, and stop diabetes medication eventually. The programme claims to have 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 programme, which has been recognised by the American Diabetes Association (ADA). 

“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,” added Aditya Kaicker, Co-founder and COO, Breathe Well-being. 

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 health and wellness player globally.