HealthifyMe acqui-hires Under45 team, launches Co-WIN-linked vaccination slot booking facility
With India's COVID-19 vaccination drive gathering steam and breaking records, it's no surprise that private entities want to do their bit for the country, too. An indigenous fitness start-up called HealthifyMe has launched a COVID-19 vaccination booking facility on its app. Its app, used by over 20 million people, plans to achieve 10 million vaccination slot bookings in three months. Here are more details.
HealthifyMe has registered itself as an Application Service Provider (ASP) with the Center's Co-WIN portal. Earlier this year, the start-up launched the VaccinateMe.in website in ten languages, thereby helping over 8 million people find vaccination slots nearby and get notified of slot availability. The start-up also recently "acqui-hired" a team called Under45 that was delivering vaccination slot alerts on Telegram.
The Under45 platform is the brainchild of Chennai-based techie Berty Thomas. It provides live vaccination slot availability alerts to over 4.1 million subscribers via more than 670 channels on the Telegram messaging app. Thomas has reportedly joined HealthifyMe as an Associate Director.
Besides Thomas, HealthifyMe has also hired Suchdeep Juneja (developer of mhVaccineTracker) and Chandraaditya Putuveru (developer of a Twitter bot called BloreVaccine) to collaborate on the VaccinateMe project with the VaccinateMe project's lead Manan Chandan. HealthifyMe has already pledged $1 million to support the VaccinateMe initiative with vigor. In a statement, the company expressed willingness to invest more, as and when needed.
For end-users, the VaccinateMe platform will continue to be a free service. Since HealthifyMe is now an ASP, it gets slot availability data directly from the Co-WIN portal. To book a slot on HealthifyMe's website, click the "Book Your Vaccination Appointment" option on the top right-hand side. This opens the VaccinateMe microsite where you can find slots by state and district, or by pin code.
Interestingly, the website doesn't let you filter by the vaccine being administered, a feature that's present on the Co-WIN portal. Once you identify a slot, you can log in using the same credentials you would use on the Co-WIN portal and book an appointment. HealthifyMe CEO Tushar Vashist said, "Getting everyone vaccinated is critical for India to become healthier and fitter."
