Dev Khosla is a healthy weight now, but back in college he was obese.
For a while, he had no interest in losing weight. But when he saw his new friends get into fitness, he decided to try.
"I told my mum, who is a well established nutritionist, that I wanted to start losing weight and we started a phone and Skype diet plan, which worked really well for me," says Mr Khosla, from New Delhi in India.
"So I thought I could create a programme, professionalise it and customise it and offer it at compelling prices, I am sure we could benefit other people."
And he did. He developed Weightmonitor, an app which offers nutritional advice and helps you track calories. The app was a success in India, and soon people were also signing up in the UAE.
"As you already know, there are a lot of Indians in the UAE so we were seeing a lot of organic demand from one friend to the other friend, like a friend reference," he says. "People are losing weight. People have been using the scoring programme which we launched, which is basically the main selling point of the programme. What it does is once you have a target to reach every day it keeps you motivated to achieve a higher score, independent of your food habits. That has been a great validator for us."
Mr Khosla moved to the UAE just over a year ago to launch Weightmonitor UAE, which has two elements – a free calorie-counting service and paid nutritionist advice. For Dh499 per quarter, users receive access to a personal nutritionist who puts together a personalised diet plan.
However, when the app was launched in Dubai based on the same paid for model as in India, the company did not see a lot of success initially.
"We had to change it to a model where people come in and feel the product, see the product, without having to pay for it immediately. You can lose weight by using the free [calorie-counting] service and go on to use it for the rest of your life or pay for the premium element [which also gives you access to a nutritionist]."
The app now has 1,500 users and Mr Khosla is on the verge of raising a Series A round of funding.
"We have been able to demonstrate a proof of concept to a suitable investor," says Mr Khosla. "We have already been talking to a few venture capital funds, so we are in the process of engagement on that side."
They may not need much persuasion.
"Anything that has a proof of concept, anything that is scalable and anything which has a barrier to entry is something that excites a VC," he says.
VentureSouq, an angel investing platform, says there has been increased interest from investors in health and fitness tech start-ups as the size of financings and valuations in both the Middle East and the US have increased significantly over the last five or six years.
"This is not surprising given that people generally are starting to take better care of themselves through healthier eating and exercise, and technology is starting to increasingly intersect into people's lives including health and wellness," says Suneel Gokhale, a partner at VentureSouq.
The global mobile health, or mHealth market, which includes the fitness tracking sector, is expected to reach US$102.43 billion by 2022, according to Zion Market Research.
"Weightmonitor UAE is a very good example of this fast developing start-up space and is an ideal fit for the emerging UAE entrepreneurial ecosystem," says Ramesh Jagannathan, the managing director of the innovation and entrepreneurship platform StartAD.
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Business Insights
- Canada and Mexico are significant energy suppliers to the US, providing the majority of oil and natural gas imports
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Learn more about Qasr Al Hosn
In 2013, The National's History Project went beyond the walls to see what life was like living in Abu Dhabi's fabled fort:
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
LIKELY TEAMS
South Africa
Faf du Plessis (captain), Dean Elgar, Aiden Markram, Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, Quinton de Kock (wkt), Vernon Philander, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Morne Morkel, Lungi Ngidi.
India (from)
Virat Kohli (captain), Murali Vijay, Lokesh Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik (wkt), Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Mohammad Shami, Jasprit Bumrah.
Company%20Profile
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Thor: Ragnarok
Dir: Taika Waititi
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett, Jeff Goldblum, Mark Ruffalo, Tessa Thompson
Four stars
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
%E2%80%98FSO%20Safer%E2%80%99%20-%20a%20ticking%20bomb
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Sarfira
Director: Sudha Kongara Prasad
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Radhika Madan, Paresh Rawal
Rating: 2/5
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Wicked
Director: Jon M Chu
Stars: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey
Sustainable Development Goals
1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere
2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation
10. Reduce inequality within and among countries
11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its effects
14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development
15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development
Types of policy
Term life insurance: this is the cheapest and most-popular form of life cover. You pay a regular monthly premium for a pre-agreed period, typically anything between five and 25 years, or possibly longer. If you die within that time, the policy will pay a cash lump sum, which is typically tax-free even outside the UAE. If you die after the policy ends, you do not get anything in return. There is no cash-in value at any time. Once you stop paying premiums, cover stops.
Whole-of-life insurance: as its name suggests, this type of life cover is designed to run for the rest of your life. You pay regular monthly premiums and in return, get a guaranteed cash lump sum whenever you die. As a result, premiums are typically much higher than one term life insurance, although they do not usually increase with age. In some cases, you have to keep up premiums for as long as you live, although there may be a cut-off period, say, at age 80 but it can go as high as 95. There are penalties if you don’t last the course and you may get a lot less than you paid in.
Critical illness cover: this pays a cash lump sum if you suffer from a serious illness such as cancer, heart disease or stroke. Some policies cover as many as 50 different illnesses, although cancer triggers by far the most claims. The payout is designed to cover major financial responsibilities such as a mortgage or children’s education fees if you fall ill and are unable to work. It is cost effective to combine it with life insurance, with the policy paying out once if you either die or suffer a serious illness.
Income protection: this pays a replacement income if you fall ill and are unable to continue working. On the best policies, this will continue either until you recover, or reach retirement age. Unlike critical illness cover, policies will typically pay out for stress and musculoskeletal problems such as back trouble.
Squid Game season two
Director: Hwang Dong-hyuk
Stars: Lee Jung-jae, Wi Ha-joon and Lee Byung-hun
Rating: 4.5/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Initial investment: Undisclosed
Investment stage: Series A
Investors: Core42
Current number of staff: 47
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Farasan Boat: 128km Away from Anchorage
Director: Mowaffaq Alobaid
Stars: Abdulaziz Almadhi, Mohammed Al Akkasi, Ali Al Suhaibani
Rating: 4/5
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Jigra
Starring: Alia Bhatt, Vedang Raina, Manoj Pahwa, Harsh Singh
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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The specs: 2018 Nissan 370Z Nismo
The specs: 2018 Nissan 370Z Nismo
Price, base / as tested: Dh182,178
Engine: 3.7-litre V6
Power: 350hp @ 7,400rpm
Torque: 374Nm @ 5,200rpm
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic
Fuel consumption, combined: 10.5L / 100km
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre turbo
Power: 181hp
Torque: 230Nm
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Starting price: Dh79,000
On sale: Now