Sequoia, Y Combinator join Indonesian healthtech startup’s funding round

Sirka, an Indonesia-based healthtech startup, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Sequoia Capital, Y Combinator, and former Sequoia Partner Tim Lee.

The company was also admitted to Y Combinator’s summer 2021 batch earlier this year.

Sirka founders Rifanditto Adhikara (left) and Dito Krista / Photo credit: Sirka

Sirka was launched just four months ago by Rifanditto Adhikara and Dito Krista, who were previously executives of MatahariMall and Ovo, respectively. The startup helps people with obesity and diabetes change their eating habits by connecting them to dietitians for meal plan recommendations as part of a three- or six-month program.

The company, which shares similar features with US-based startup Noom, currently has nine registered dietitians and has scaled to over 30 cities in Indonesia.

According to Adhikara, the idea of Sirka came from the founders’ own experience of having chronic health conditions in the family passed down over generations. “We realized how difficult it was to continually care for our loved ones especially during the pandemic,” he told Tech in Asia.

The company currently has nine employees. Sirka plans to use the fresh funds to triple its tech team and fuel its growth in Indonesia, which has seen a 2x growth in its overweight adult population over the past two decades.

“The biggest challenge for us right now is to educate the mass of how to get past the fads and myths of dieting and prioritize habit building to get long-term weight loss,” Adhikara concluded.