Titan Capital-backed startup Khyaal, which focuses on services for senior citizens, has raised $4.2 million in a funding round co-led by 62 Ventures, SVQuad and early-stage venture capital firm Inventus Capital Partners, which has earlier backed firms like Policybazaar and Healthify.
The round also saw participation from existing investors including Everywhere Ventures, Supermorpheus and Unpopular Ventures.
The funds will be used to strengthen the company’s foothold in its current regions, enhance market penetration and explore new markets. “We are seeing a lot of new people joining from places like Kerala, Coimbatore and so on. We want to also come out and have regional language options on the app,” founder and chief executive of Khyaal, Hemanshu Jain, told ET.
Founded in 2020 by Jain, Pritish Nelleri and Alok Soni, Khyaal provides a range of services to seniors aged 55 and above, including digital literacy training, entertainment content, games, financial services tailored for seniors, and on-demand assistance services like cab bookings, medical services and bill payments. It also has post-retirement job opportunities and travel packages for seniors. Soni is not associated with the startup anymore.
“The idea is to recreate the entire physical clubs format, but through an app and deliver it to seniors at the convenience of their homes,” said Jain. The app claims to have a user base of over 1 million seniors, with the most popular categories being payment card and travel.
According to Jain, the issue of loneliness is more prevalent in tier-I and tier-II cities compared to rural areas, with the majority of demand stemming from these urban centres. Jain believes that word of mouth plays a very important role in seniors’ lives as 75% of the people on the platform are organic.
Khyaal has various revenue streams, including the annual membership of Rs 999, travel packages with a trip size of around 30 people, and other products and services for which it has partnered with companies like Tata Digital-owned epharmacy platform 1mg.
The company is clocking roughly about $200,000 annually in revenue. “We would, of course, want to scale it up to at least a million dollars in revenue in the next one year or so,” Jain added.
Commenting on the investment, Glen Tullman, principal at 62 Ventures, said, “As populations around the world and in India age, and the next generation becomes more mobile, it’s important to provide strong communities that allow our senior populations to not simply survive but thrive in the next phase of their lives. Khyaal provides a comprehensive approach so that India’s elderly population has one place to go for everything they need to prosper.”
