For the last 30 years, Mukul Shah’s mother has been suffering from Type II diabetes. The usage of general medicines for many years affected her kidneys, resulting in poor digestion, and other problems.
This led Mukul to look out for alternative solutions, and most of his research was pointing towards Ayurveda treatment, he says.
“When I started looking for Ayurveda doctors, there was no way to find qualified Ayurveda doctors, but luckily a friend of mine recommended an Ashram, which was located 250 kms away from Delhi. But there was no proper booking management system and it was not digitised,” says Mukul.
However, Mukul managed to take his mother to the Ashram for consultation. After going through the programme for six months, he noticed a drastic change in his mother’s health, and her dependency on modern medications was reduced to 20%.
“That is when I decided to create an alternate healthcare ecosystem for India and the world, and that is how was born,” states Mukul.
Founded in 2021 by Mukul Shah, K Sandeep, and Mansi Sharma, Lifechart is a holistic gut specialist brand. The startup provides solutions for constipation, indigestion, gas, piles, fatty liver, and overall gut health.
A serial entrepreneur, Mukul met Mansi at Yolo Bus, his previous venture. Sandeep knew Mukul since 2019 when Mukul was looking for a CTO for Yolo and had offered him the position. However, Snadeep did not join Yolo, but eventually became a co-founder at Lifechart.
The Gurugram-based startup currently has a network of 500 doctors and 30 health buddies across India, and has consulted 1.5 lakh patients till now.
Connecting patients to doctors
Lifechart provides holistic end-to-end solutions to its customers. Mukul says, the startup takes care of its patient right from the discovery stage of the disease until recovery.
Customers can connect with Lifechart through three mediums. Firstly, patients can download the app on Google Play Store and can connect with doctors within 60 seconds.
“We are proud to connect customers to Ayurveda doctors instantly within 60 seconds via AI-based technology. We provide products formulated by our doctors, which are clinically-tested, followed by disease recovery and patient care management programme, all under one roof,” says Mukul.
Secondly, it also has a strong presence on social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, and customers can connect with doctors through these mediums. The startup also runs digital marketing ads over social media through which people can connect with Lifechart.
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Mukul says, “Most of our customers are from Tier II and Tier III cities who are highly engaged with social media. Our doctors engage with them through social media by conducting sessions and by uploading reels related to its products and its usage. Customers can also book appointments through these channels.”
Thirdly, patients can connect through its website, where they can find products and also avail teleconsultation links to connect with doctors. At the moment, its products are available only on Lifechart website, but it plans to launch on ecommerce platforms in the coming months.
How it works?
Once a customer logs in to Lifechart website, a health buddy is assigned to them who will guide them in terms of dietary and lifestyle changes. These health buddies are trained pharmacists who do a preliminary diagnosis and then transfer the call to the doctor.
The product formulations are prepared by a team of in-house doctors who are part of Lifechart Labs, and these products are tested by FICCI lab. The doctors come with many years of experience, and are led by a research pharma head.
Lifechart offers OTC (over-the-counter) products as well and people do not need doctor prescription to purchase them.
However, Mukul feels there is a huge gap in educating the customers about Ayurvedic medicine, and so they have come up with free 24×7 consultation.
Business model and revenue
Lifechart works on a B2C model where it offers doctor consultations digitally and also offers doorstep delivery of products.
The platform charges a consultation fee ranging between Rs 5 – Rs 20 per minute based on the experience of the doctor, and people mostly consult doctors for an average time of around 15-20 minutes.
Lifechart has also built an in-house AI generative engine to gather data from customers during consultation, which helps in predicting future demand and new product categories.
Based on this data, the platform has launched five instant gut relief products that are in demand. These include constipation formula, fatty liver formula, gastric issue formula, piles formula, and indigestion formula.
“We are providing tech-enabled tools for our Ayurveda doctors to diagnose diseases digitally in an effective way by the usage of artificial intelligence,” says Mukul.
“Our AI engine is also predicting the current demand of products, trending diseases, customer demographics, etc. We are working on providing new-age diagnosis AI tools to our Ayurvedic doctors through Lifechart doc coach app, which will provide an equal opportunity, tech tools, and a platform to Ayurveda doctors,” says Mukul.
The company has priced its products in the range of Rs 320 and Rs 2,300. The products are in the form of vegan capsules, syrups, and powders.
“These five organic products, which are made by our in-house doctors in terms of formulation, are getting a huge response,” says Mukul.
Traction and way ahead
As per IMARC, the Ayurvedic products market size in India reached Rs 62,600 crore in 2022 and is expected to reach Rs 1,82400 crore by 2028, registering a CAGR of 19.3% during 2023-2028.
The platform started making revenue from November 2022 and reported an ARR of around Rs 2 to 2.4 crore till August 2023, and is expected to touch Rs 6-6.5 crore by the end of financial year 2023 with unit level profitability.
With strong technology, product mix, and distribution models, Lifechart has touched the lives of 150,000 customers, says Mukul.
“We aim to close FY24 with net revenue of Rs 40 crore and building on this continued growth, we aim to touch Rs 500 crore net revenue by FY26,” states Mukul.
The startup has secured approximately $200,000 in funding from investors such as Nitish Mitterssain, Founder of Nazara technologies; ExpertDojo, an US-based VC firm; and Sunn91 Ventures. The founders invested around Rs 20 lakh to kickstart the business.
Currently, its on-going seed round is already 70% subscribed by marquee investors such as Marwari Angels, Atal Incubation Fund, a pharma gian , along with angel investment platform CAT.
“In the crowded Ayurveda market, our main competitors are D2C companies. However, Lifechart differentiates itself through cutting-edge technology, including AI-driven diagnostics and demand prediction,” states Mukul.
Edited by Megha Reddy
