Bollywood superstar Hrithik Roshan has signed an endorsement deal with healthtech startup Cure.fit. He will also be the brand ambassador of the company, which roped in one of the largest investment by any Indian startup.
In the five-year contract, the Greek God of Indian cinema will have an equity stake in the fitness firm with promotions and royalty from his personal brand HRX’s specialised workout plan. This plan will be introduced across Cult fitness centres operated by Cure.fit and is planning to launch its own mobile app, which is expected to rake in Rs 250-crore annual business in the coming years.
“The idea behind this workout is to help people move better, faster and feel athletic by progressing gradually. Since its introduction, the response to the HRX Workout (at Cult fitness centers) has been welcoming with an ever increasing roster of participants.
We are delighted with this initial response and it also gives us great confidence to look at reaching out to newer markets and further the HRX vision through this partnership,” said Hrithik Roshan, founder HRX to ET.
Tracking the space, analysts say, a typical one-year contract, including one personal appearance by the celebrity, is valued at Rs 15 crore. The cost of promoting the company on social media can range from Rs 2.5 lakh per tweet to as high as Rs 2.5 crore depending on the popularity of the actor.
Founded in 2016 by former Flipkart executives Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori, Cure Fit Healthcare Pvt. Ltd provides services such as fitness advice and medicine deliveries.
Available on the iOS and Android market hubs, it offers three variants of fitness services – Cult.Fit, an app on physical fitness; Eat.Fit takes charge of healthy food; and Mind.Fit gives mental wellness training.
“Hrithik’s involvement with Cure.fit will be multi-fold and we will soon launch do-it-yourself format for the HRX workout. He will also be promoting Cure.fit’s philosophy of a healthy lifestyle,” said Mukesh Bansal.
The past two years has been a busy and growing market for fitness startup. Backed by Kalaari Capital, Accel Partners and IDG Ventures, the company had raised $15 million in series-A round of funding last year in July. Later in August, CureFit acquired fitness centre brand Cult for $3 million, then picked up a majority stake in fitness centre chain The Tribe in February this year and recently had acquired Bengaluru-based yoga chain a1000yoga for an unknown amount.
