500 Startups-backed PurelyB gets into yoga with acquisition

Photo credit: Liv Lo

PurelyB, a health and wellness portal founded in Malaysia, confirmed today that it acquired Singaporean yoga community Stretch City.

PurelyB co-founder Jesrina Arshad did not disclose the value of the deal.

As part of the acquisition, Stretch City’s community of 8,200 yoga practitioners was transferred to PurelyB’s site at the beginning of the month. Stretch City’s website already redirects to PurelyB, and its database of health food restaurants was fused with PurelyB’s restaurant directory.

An acquisition made perfect sense as a way to move forward.

Stretch City was three years old at the time of the acquisition. It focused on yoga enthusiasts across Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Sydney. “A niche base, but one that’s extremely health conscious and very relevant to us,” says Jesrina. “An acquisition made perfect sense as a way to move forward, as we build up Asia’s largest health and wellness community together and unite our resources.”

“Announcements were of course made to both Stretch City and PurelyB community members prior,” Jesrina assures.

Stretch City co-founder Liv Lo (left) and Jesrina Arshad.

Exercising the VC cash

Stretch City founders Liv Lo and Yun Ng had plans to eventually expand Stretch City into a holistic wellness portal beyond yoga, Jesrina explains. The merger with PurelyB was due to similar values and vision.

Liv will contribute to PurelyB as an ambassador and producer of video content, while the other co-founder, Yun, is taking a step back and relocating to France. Other team members, writers, and health and wellness experts who contributed content will continue to do so for ongoing projects on PurelyB.

PurelyB is taking larger strides since raising a US$500,000 seed round from 500 Startups in December. The team has grown to 18 members and is planning the launch of a health and fitness products marketplace in the second quarter this year.

The site sees about 80,000 monthly unique visitors, with the strongest user base in Malaysia and Singapore. It is riding on the rising wave of interest in yoga and fitness.