Founded in 2014, Mumbai-based GOQii is mostly known for its health monitoring wearables. Now, wanting to become a full-service preventive healthcare company, the start-up found its “demonetisation” moment when the pandemic hit, precisely six years after it came into being, though the company’s products and extended platforms were way ahead of its times. GOQii integrated its wearable devices with insurance packages in 2017 followed by the launch of its remote exercising platform GOQii Play.
Vishal Gondal, founder and CEO, GOQii shares the roadmap for the start-up, his plans to become a customised insurance aggregator and why competition from Chinese wearables counterparts doesn’t bother him.
Although you started early, do you find the increasing competition from Chinese wearables companies and newer Indian brands has hindered your growth and valuation to some extent?
We are not competing with any of these Chinese hardware companies. I am going after a consumer who wants to be healthy and we want to be their long-term healthcare partner. We are a healthcare company and not a device company. One part of the business involves tracking high-quality health data which we get from the wearables. The second component is analysing this data and advicing the users through coaching and content on our app platform. And third, once the user becomes healthy and their health risk assessment rate improves, based on the clinical outcome, we are partnering with insurance companies to provide them insurance coverage. We also have a GOQii store where we provide users health food and a whole host of things, where one can buy these products within the app.
So, we track, advise and give rewards. Rewards are given through the e-commerce platform, insurance packages and better banking plans.
The app tracks sleep, steps taken, activity, meals, nutrition awareness, BMI, health risk assessment, and even blood group. It can be connected to medical devices like blood glucose-monitor, and fitbits. Based on this, a health score is given which is integrated with a Bajaj Health Insurance Card. The better the health score, the user gets a premium discount from Bajaj.
Alternatively, users can also look at GOQii cash score, which can be used to get discounts on buying products from our e-commerce. Then there is a GOQii arena, a place like social media where users share what they eat, their daily activities etc., which helps in getting the health score, and based on it the insurance discounts will be decided.
How did the pandemic play out for GOQii? What is your long-term goal for the start-up?
My long-term goal is to become India’s biggest insurance company. I don’t really have people would be having higher health risk. Wearables is just a means, the larger goal for me is to create a cohort of 100 million healthy people. I am promising to make my users live longer and healthier. Now, if the user wants this too, they, in turn, become the best customer for health insurances, life insurances, loans and to offer health products.
Last year we sold 2.5 lakh kilos of healthy food. Every month, I sell 5,000-7,000 bottles of ghee and honey. We have curated these healthy products.
In our app, we have options to check ECG, blood pressure, and blood oxygen levels. These are clinical data and help in deciding the health risk assessment score.
Like I said earlier, I am not competing with wearable devices. I want to be your insurance provider, lifestyle and healthcare products seller which makes the addressable market for GOQii much larger. Wearables in not the biggest revenue contributor for us, it is e-commerce. My business starts not when you buy the device but when you join and get onto our platform.
What is the stickiness level for the app?
One of the best things about our programme is that it is a paid programme; our average customer spends ₹4,000-5,000 per year on the programme, hence they are serious customers.
The way we are looking at health data is just the way you manage finances. Otherwise, there are always tools to analyse and monitor your financial position but not for health on a day-to-day basis. We have half a million app users at present, who are all paid users.