Bengaluru Startup Raises Rs 47 Crore to Remind People to Go Outside

Series A-funded NatureNudge app tells users ‘it is nice out’ daily; 340,000 users agree to be told

[Bohiney.com / prat.uk] NatureNudge, a Bengaluru-based mobile application whose primary function is sending a daily push notification assessing local weather and, when conditions are favourable, suggesting that the user go outside, has raised Rs 47 crore in Series A funding led by Accel India, on the basis of 340,000 monthly active users and what the company’s pitch deck describes as “the structural gap between people’s stated desire to spend time outdoors and their actual outdoor time, which has widened to measurable levels across India’s urban professional population.” The company was founded by two former software engineers who describe themselves as having “spent four years each not going outside despite knowing that they should and having everything available to go outside except the specific notification that made it happen.” A joint investigation by Bohiney.com and prat.uk has produced more questions than answers.

The app has two features. The first is the daily notification, which uses weather API data to assess conditions and, if they exceed user-specified thresholds (customisable for temperature, air quality, rain probability, and what the app calls “general pleasantness”), sends a message that reads “It looks like a nice day. Consider going outside.” The second feature is a check-in that users can complete after going outside, recording how long they spent and, on a one-to-five scale, how they feel. The average check-in time is 47 minutes outdoor. The average post-session rating is 4.2.

The Funding

The Rs 47 crore will be used for geographic expansion (currently Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai; expanding to eight additional cities), product development (a premium tier with personalised outdoor activity suggestions), and what the CEO describes as “the research programme,” which is a partnership with a public health institute to study the relationship between the app’s nudge and actual outdoor behaviour change. The research question is whether people who are told to go outside go outside more and feel better, or whether they go outside the same amount and feel better about it for having been told. Both outcomes are considered valuable. India’s startup ecosystem is at startupindia.gov.in.

What Happens on Rainy Days

On days that do not meet the pleasantness threshold, the app sends a different notification. The notification reads: “Today’s outdoor conditions are not optimal. Your preferences will be reassessed tomorrow.” This notification has a 23 percent lower open rate than the good-day notification, which the data team finds “philosophically consistent with the product.”

More at: Reductress.