Artificial intelligence-based health, fitness and weight-loss startup HealthifyMe has merged with New York-based dietitian-reimbursement platform Berry Street in an all-stock deal, effectively making it a US company with the India business now a subsidiary. According to reports from Mint, founder Tushar Vashisht explained that the company has been trying to scale the US market for about 18 months, realizing that the biggest hurdle was insurance reimbursement for dietitians' time. The merger addresses HealthifyMe's insurance gap while Berry Street had an AI gap, creating a complementary partnership. Vashisht declined to comment on specific deal contours but confirmed that investors in HealthifyMe will continue in the merged entity.
The combined company will be led by Healthify founder Tushar Vashisht and Berry Street founder Noah Kotlove as co-CEOs, with the company retaining the Berry Street brand in the US while continuing to operate as Healthify in India and other markets. In the US, HealthifyMe's direct-to-consumer business will move into Berry Street, tying it to consumers' insurance network. As reported by Mint, Vashisht will serve as co-chief executive officer and CEO, international, of the merged entity. The company's standalone US consumer operations have ceased, with the only exception being the NRI segment that will continue using the HealthifyMe app. Berry Street now gains access to the entire budget for expanding the HealthifyMe business in the US, with Vashisht stating "We will collapse all the marketing budget that we had for the United States to Berry Street." Almost half the engineering team has been reallocated for US and international markets, with the shift freeing Vashisht from day-to-day commercial responsibility in the US, which now sits with Berry Street's founder and CEO Noah Kotlove.
The merger combines HealthifyMe's AI-led nutrition platform with Berry Street's extensive clinical network, creating a comprehensive health and wellness solution. Berry Street connects patients with more than 2,000 clinicians and has served over 200,000 patients across all 50 US states, offering nutrition therapy and GLP-1 drugs used to treat diabetes and obesity. HealthifyMe brings its AI assistant Ria and food-tracking tools to the combined business, with Ria using data on nutrition, sleep, stress and weight to offer personalised guidance. The deal provides HealthifyMe with clinical and insurance infrastructure in the US market as it expands its operations.
Venture capital firms on HealthifyMe's cap table include Chiratae Ventures, Leapfrog Investments, Blume Ventures, Claypond Capital and Khosla Ventures. According to Mint reports, the merger comes as health and wellness markets, especially weight-loss, have exploded due to commercial success of drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. The global market for these blood sugar and appetite regulation drugs is expected to reach $95 billion by 2030, according to Goldman Sachs. A public offering in the US is planned, though still at least 24 months away, with Vashisht noting "Can we have other rounds that will end up giving some early investors an exit? That's very doable." Given the merger, the listing of the Indian business has now become unlikely, though not completely ruled out.
