Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are the leading cause of death worldwide, constituting more than 70% of all deaths or roughly 41 million people every year.

Of those, 85% of ‘premature’ deaths, classified as occurring between the ages of 30 and 70, are in low- and middle-income countries.¹ In India, roughly 4 million people die each year from cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases, and diabetes. These diseases account for 16,939 disease adjusted life years lost (DALYs) per 100,000 in India.² Lifestyle factors such as unhealthy eating habits, tobacco smoking, a rise in alcohol intake and increased urbanisation are all key drivers of the growing burden of NCDs in the country.³ The greatest increase in these factors is among low-income populations.

Globally, for low-income households, NCDs can put a significant strain on finances. These diseases on average lead to higher out-of-pocket healthcare costs than any other disease type.⁴ This is in large part due to the chronic nature of these diseases and the high cost associated with long-term care. Medical expenses can often result in catastrophic health expenditure for the patients and their household, pulling them into or further into poverty and entrenching inequality in society⁵. Such high costs can also act as a deterrent for patients who should seek treatment, further adding to the incidence of premature mortality.

Premature deaths due to NCDs have a high socio-economic impact as the affected are most likely the main income earner inthe household.⁶ On a macroeconomic level, NCDs reduce the productivity of the workforce, resulting in the reduction of overall economic output. It is estimated that every 10% increase in NCD mortality results in a 0.5% reduction in global annual economic growth.⁷

Healthify is a fast-growing, digital health service focused on wellbeing, fitness and nutrition, and the largest health and fitness app outside of the US and China.

The company was established to meet the gap in affordable tools for food tracking in India, and to help curb rising obesity rates. Since that time Healthify has expanded its products and services to include nutritional information, artificial intelligence (AI) and smart coaching, exercise libraries, telemedicine, and real-time metabolic health panels to address obesity-related risk.

Healthify offers a wide spectrum of pricing across a variety of products targetingboth mass market and premium segments. As a result of its affordable services and freemium model, 80% of Healthify’s free users are low-income while 60% of its users are in Tier 2, Tier 3, and Tier 4 towns. More than half of the company’s users are female, with several of Healthify’s products specifically targeting female health conditions.

In 2022, Healthify launched HealthifyPro, its flagship fitness plan incorporating smart devices which measure the reaction of the body to certain foods and activities. Already, these products have resulted in a decline in lifestyle diseases for 80% of Pro users and an average 15% drop in users’ blood glucose levels.

The company have been quick to take advantage of the rise of local language models and the advent of Generative AI for products such as their Smart Plans. In partnership with OpenAI, the company has improved its Snap tool, achieving greater accuracy of its photo recognition and encouraging more users to track their foods eaten. Users track food 50% more often with Snap, and this improvement in engagement is expected to lead to a 50% increase in users’ fitness as well.

In addition, conversation length has doubled with the company’s virtual health assistant, Ria, who is now capable of answering complex queries by correlating values from across the platform while AI-supported coaches can respond to clients in half the time.