Enabling Working Capital Financing for India’s Largest Health and Wellness Startup

A Case Study on Vendor Financing for a High-Growth D2C Enterprise

The borrower operates over 700 gymnasium and fitness studios across India, with a customer base of over half a million monthly active users. With a digital-first model powered by a high-engagement fitness app, the brand is redefining health engagement.

In addition to the above business, the borrower’s direct-to-consumer (D2C) equipment-selling vertical was witnessing rapid adoption, with increasing traction on their website and app storefronts, supported by offline retail tie-ups.

A leading fitness and wellness brand in India operates at the intersection of tech-enabled fitness services and a growing D2C product vertical, including branded fitness apparel, home workout equipment, and accessories.

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Roadblocks:

Company’s dual engine of growth, encompassed critical working capital challenges:

• Requirement to pre-stock inventory and scale logistics ahead of demand spikes.
• Delayed fulfillment risks for both retail and fitness verticals due to underfunded operations.
• Traditional financing too slow and rigid, with disbursal cycles stretching 2–3 weeks.
• Lack of flexibility in repayment terms during off-peak revenue periods.
• High cost of unsecured loans and reluctance for equity dilution.
• Unpredictable, seasonal capital needs driven by festive cycles and campaign periods.

Capital needs in such hybrid models are cyclical, and event based, thus the brand missed inventory cycles, delays in retail fulfilment, and operational throttling due to capex and working capital gaps.

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Approach: Startup Financing Powered by CredAble

CredAble structured a startup financing facility that aligned with the brand’s seasonal revenue fluctuations and operating needs.

Financing Structure and Timelines:

• Sanction time: Within 3 working days post documentation and verification
• Same-day disbursals: Once activated, drawdowns were credited within hours

Cross-Vertical Coverage:

• Capital allocation was designed to support both product and service verticals:
  • Product: Inventory stocking, logistics scaling
  • Service: Instructor hiring, center readiness, maintenance

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Solutioning: Fast Capital, No Dilution

CredAble’s offering focused on four high-impact solution components:

1. Vendor Financing Facility for Inventory

• The sanctioned limit dynamically adjusted to monthly revenue flows, ensuring liquidity scaled with business performance.
• No fixed EMI: repayment terms were designed to ease burden during off-peak months.
• Full Receivables cover through invoice discounting based on Anchor SLA, with irrevocable payment instructions.

2. Fast-Track Credit Activation

• For new vendor onboarding is less than 24 Hrs.
• Successive drawdowns were processed same day, enabling quick campaign and ops execution.

3. Fungible Multi-Use Capital

• The same pool of funds was used for:
  • Expanding product inventory for the festive season.
  • Campaign blitz during peak digital sales events.
  • Scaling operational readiness at metro fitness centres.

4. Seamlessly Managed Lifecycle with NBFC Integration

• Full coordination handled directly with CredAble’s in-house NBFC.
• Transparent disbursal process with real-time status updates.
• Manual but responsive tracking of drawdowns and repayment schedules.
• Personalised support for repayment alerts, usage insights, and limit top-ups.

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Cascading Effect for Borrower

CredAble’s financing facility delivered tangible results within just three months of activation:

• Increase in Corporate Vendor Payable days from 30 days to 90 days.
• 72-hour capital turnaround, improving business responsiveness by 4x.
• 2X increase in festive inventory capacity with zero stockouts.
• 15–18% improvement in working capital turnover ratio.
• 100% uptime in fitness centres during peak festive traffic.
• Zero operational delays, despite demand surge across retail and fitness app usage.
• Avoided reliance on unsecured high-interest short-term loans.

“For fast-moving fitness brands like ours, liquidity isn’t a luxury; it’s a necessity. CredAble’s speed and flexibility gave us the control we needed to execute confidently during a make-or-break festive season.” — Treasury Head, Leading Fitness & Wellness Brand

Redefining Growth Financing for India’s D2C Champions

CredAble’s Vendor financing model for startups is engineered for scale-stage consumer brands. In this case, it helped one of India’s fastest-growing fitness and wellness brands seize seasonal opportunities, maintain service quality, and extend D2C leadership.

By embedding capital into the revenue rhythm of the business, CredAble ensured that capital became a growth enabler, not a bottleneck.

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