Direct-to-consumer mother and baby platform Mylo has raised $17 million in its Series B funding round led by US-based digital health investor W Health Ventures, ITC and Endiya Partners.

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Riverwalk Holdings, Alteria Capital, and Innoven Capital also participated in the funding round. The firm till date has raised $24 million.

With this investment, the tobacco-to-paper giant ITC is set to acquire 10 percent stake in Blupin Technologies, the parent company of Mylo. The move is aimed at expanding ITC’s presence in the D2C mother and baby care segment.

Last year in November, it had made an investment in Mother Sparsh, an ayurvedic and natural personal care brand.

These investments further provide ITC an early-mover advantage in the evolving content-to-community-to-commerce space, which is expected to emerge as a platform of the future, the company said in a statement.

The move is in line with the company’s ‘ITC Next’ strategy which focusses on consumer-centricity and future-readiness in a digital-first culture. The company has outlined “value accretive opportunities" in such areas as planks for growth.

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“The investment will provide ITC the opportunity to foray into this emerging space and become an integral part of the evolution of this area. Our investment in Mylo will also enable us to strengthen focus in the mother and baby community building platform, besides expanding our presence in the D2C mother and child care segment,” said Sameer Satpathy, Chief Executive, Personal Care Products Business, ITC.

Founded in 2017, Mylo is a full stack community ecosystem focused on parenting and child-related content, health tools, and community sharing features. Last year, it also launched its own D2C brands for mothers and babies across personal care, premium ayurveda and daily essentials.

As per the firm, in India, 25 million women become mothers every year. It is difficult to believe that 1 in 10 women struggle to conceive, 2 in 3 have difficulty breastfeeding, and 1 in 7 suffer from postpartum depression.

While the mother and childcare industry in India has grown to $50 billion, it is yet to address several fundamental gaps in the health and wellness of mothers and children. To bridge these gaps, Mylo said its next focus area is healthcare services.

The company is already providing doctor consultations with gynaecologists and paediatricians, health packages for weight loss and PCOS, and hospital recommendations for delivery/IVF procedures.

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“The investment will help us build the Mylo brand, scale our community, products verticals and launch our digital health solutions for mothers. We are thrilled to onboard investors who bring significant operational and healthcare expertise in our expansion areas that will help us build India's #1 full-stack one-stop solution for mothers,” said Vinit Garg, Founder and CEO, Mylo.

The Mylo app currently has over 4 million women and claims to be adding over 300,000 new users every month. It has over 100 unique products, sold over 7 lakh units and shipped to over 16000 pin codes.

First Published:Apr 21, 2022 1:50 PM IST