Cure.Fit, a healthcare and fitness startup founded by former Flipkart executives Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori, has signed Hrithik Roshan as a brand ambassador, in a deal which is touted to be the largest endorsement deal by an Indian startup.
The deal, which is for a duration of five years, is valued at Rs 100 crore. It includes the actor’s equity stake in the company in lieu of cash investment, promotions and royalty from his personal brand HRX’s specialised workout plan. This plan will be introduced across Cult fitness centres operated by Cure.fit.
HRX Workout offering is currently available at Cult fitness centres, which is now owned and operated by Cure.fit, and soon to be launched on the mobile app. It is expected to rake in Rs 250 crore annual business in the coming years.
Commenting on this, Hrithik Roshan, founder of HRX, said,
The idea behind this workout is to help people move better, faster and feel athletic by progressing gradually. Since its introduction the response to the HRX Workout (at Cult fitness centers) has been welcoming with an ever increasing roster of participants. We are delighted with this initial response and it also gives us great confidence to look at reaching out to newer markets and further the HRX vision through this partnership.
Mukesh Bansal, co-founder of the startup, said,
His involvement with Cure.fit will be multi-fold and we will soon launch do-it- yourself format for the HRX workout. He will also be promoting Cure.fit’s philosophy of a healthy lifestyle.
Bansal has also previously worked with Hrithik Roshan. In 2013, Roshan started selling fashion products under HRX brand exclusively on Myntra, which at the time was an independent entity run by its Founder Mukesh Bansal. Later, Myntra was acquired by Flipkart in 2014, and recently, the company also acquired a 51% stake in the HRX brand.
Cure.fit has now joined the list of startups who are signing on celebrities for brand recall and positioning. Online grocery platform BigBasket signed on Shah Rukh Khan in 2015 while Aamir Khan was signed on in 2015 by Snapdeal for a yearlong contract. Recently, online jewellery brand BlueStone on-boarded Alia Bhatt.