Celebrities backed Sarva Yoga keeping people fit
SARVA Yoga Studio, is now well known as SARVA & Diva Yoga, Founded in March 2016 has launched its premium brand segment Diva Yoga which is co-founded by a well-known personality, Malaika Arora. The start-up is channelized to provide fitness services and offers workout routines by Malaika Arora. To increase its reach it has over 40 studios across five cities not only this it has also bagged a revenue of $4 million for the financial year (FY) 2020.
The SARVA app helps its users with live and interactive virtual classes, and also a feature that gives users real-time feedback on their posture. SARVA aims to be a digital company and has less than 50 people at present, but COVID -19 forced the company to let go of 10-12 percent more people.
“SARVA envisions to become the Netflix of wellness by having content designed, defined, and delivered under the sections of Mind, Body, and Nourish. It aims to organize the currently fragmented yoga and wellness industry not just in India but internationally as well,” says 27-year-old Sarvesh.
Commenting on resuming its brick-and-mortar business, Sarvesh says, “Time will tell. We are looking at things with many lenses. For instance, the landlord’s support is key, and so is profitability, bandwidth, time, and so on,” he says. “We believe the brick and mortar business will take a significant amount of time to recuperate and come back. The focus is completely on digital now,” he adds.
People generally believe that digital businesses burn a lot of cash. You do not need a lot of cash. You can build a sustainable, good, profitable business if the basic components of your business are right. The four key metrics are acquisition, engagement, retention, and a good user persona. A good user sticks with you,” Sarvesh says.
The app with its digital platform offers live and interactive virtual classes and hosts a range of activities for both body and mind which includes live yoga sessions, postures, weight loss programs, sleep stories, guided meditation, mindfulness music, stories for children, etc.
Coming to the digital platform angle of the startup , Sarvesh says, the digital offering is going to be about four sections – Body, Mind, Nourish, and Achieve. The app is available in six regional languages including Hindi, Tamil, Marathi, etc., and is going to add more languages this month.
“We were planning to launch our digital offering. But due to various reasons, it was getting pushed. We had planned the launch on June 21, but then we fast-tracked it and launched the entire digital offering on March 21,” says Sarvesh.
Coming to competition in terms of digital wellness space, Sarvesh says, there are a lot of fitness players in India, but there are no big players in the yoga segment. “Since ‘Vocal for Local’ is also becoming a big trend, one of the few things that we can genuinely become vocal for local is yoga,” he says.
The yogi-turned-entrepreneur says that since SARVA is from India, the startup has a very strong authenticity element, which can be gauged by the fact that its app has already been accessed in about 100 countries like the US, the UK, Italy, Singapore, and others since its launch.
