Tushar Vashisht (born 3 April 1985) is an Indian entrepreneur. He is the co-founder and CEO of consumer health app

HealthifyMe HealthifyMe is an Indian digital health and wellness company, which provides an app with services such as calorie tracking and advice on nutrition and fitness. It is available on the Android and iOS platforms, and can be used with wearable tech ...

. He is a former investment banker, was an early employee at

Aadhaar Aadhaar (Hindi: आधार, ) is a twelve-digit unique identity number that can be obtained voluntarily by all residents of India, based on their biometrics and demography, demographic data. The data is collected by the Unique Identification ...

and is a

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

graduate.

Early life

Vashisht was born in

Karnal Karnal () is a city located in the state of Haryana, India and is the administrative headquarters of Karnal District. The city is well connected as it lies on National Highway 01, in the south of the city lies the cities of Panipat and Sonipa ...

Haryana Haryana () is a States and union territories of India, state located in the northern part of India. It was carved out after the linguistic reorganisation of Punjab, India, Punjab on 1 November 1966. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with les ...

, to SN Vashisht, former Director General of Police of Haryana, and Dr. Suneeta Madan, daughter of veterinary scientist ML Madan. Vashisht did his K-12 in different schools in Haryana before graduating from

Sardar Patel Vidyalaya Sardar Patel Vidyalaya (SPV) is an education school located in Lodi Estate, New Delhi, India. The school is named after a leader of the Indian independence movement, and independent India's first Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, Sardar ...

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

in 2003. He spent his first two college years between

Delhi College of Engineering Delhi Technological University (DTU), formerly Delhi College of Engineering (DCE) is a state university in Rohini, Delhi, India. It was established in 1941 as Delhi Polytechnic. In 1952, it started giving degrees after being affiliated with th ...

and

Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology Netaji Subhas University of Technology (NSUT), formerly Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology (NSIT) is a state university located in Dwarka, Delhi, India. In 2018, the institute was granted university status, changing its name to Netaji Subha ...

, before transferring to and graduating with a BAS in computer science from the

in 2007.

Career

Vashisht began his career from

Wall Street Wall Street is a street in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs eight city blocks between Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway in the west and South Street (Manhattan), South Str ...

as an intern for

BlackRock BlackRock, Inc. is an American Multinational corporation, multinational investment company. Founded in 1988, initially as an enterprise risk management and fixed income institutional asset manager, BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager ...

. He joined

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (, ) is a Germany, German multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. ...

full-time as corporate finance analyst in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

before shifting to Singapore. In 2009, he joined the

project headed by

Nandan Nilekani Nandan Mohanrao Nilekani is an Indian entrepreneur. He co-founded Infosys and is the non-executive chairman of Infosys replacing R Seshasayee and Ravi Venkatesan, who were the co-chairs of the board, on 24 August 2017. After the exit of Vishal S ...

in Bangalore, where many of the future board members and early investors of HealthifyMe were his colleagues. Inspired by his own weight gain within a year of returning to India, Vashisht started HealthifyMe in 2012, with Mathew Cherian and Sachin Shenoy as co-founders with "a vision to help Indians be healthier and fitter using online tools". According to him, it is India's "first comprehensive calorie tracker". The company would later add digital nutritionists and trainers as subscription service. In 2019, it launched AI-powered "Smart Plans" recommended by its digital nutritionist "Ria", based on customer habits and medical conditions. The company went on to raise four rounds of funding including a series B funding of 18 million in 2018. In 2019, HealthifyMe was reported to be the top rated Indian startup on

Google Play Store Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store, Play Store, or sometimes the Android Store (and was formerly Android Market), is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certifie ...

. While at HealthifyMe and during their poverty line experiment, Vashisht advocated for better nutrition policies for Indians. He advocated for better protein subsidy for the masses in 2011–12 in front of the Planning Commission and

National Advisory Council The National Advisory Council (NAC) was an advisory body set up by the first United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in 2004 to advise the Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh. Sonia Gandhi served as its chairperson for much of the tenur ...

, as well as on other forums. In 2018, he gave a presentation during the India-Russia Business Summit, in front of Indian Prime Minister,

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician who has served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India since 2014. Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Par ...

, and Russian President

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...

Poverty experiment

In 2011, Vashisht lived on 100 a day and 32 a day for a month, alongside Mathew Cherian. The duo documented their experience on a blog and went on to advocate for the improvement of the average and poor Indian, especially in the field of nutrition, travel, employment and addiction. They concluded that 32 was insufficient to survive on, while 120 a day was the income level required to exit poverty.

Music

Vashisht is a trained Hindustani classical singer and was a member of

Penn Masala Penn Masala is an American a cappella group. It is the world's first and premier South Asian a cappella group. Formed in 1996 by students at the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Masala's music has been influenced by the Eastern and Western cultur ...

between 2005 and 2007. His composition "Pehchaan" was the title song of the album released in 2007. The song was featured on America's Best of College A Capella in 2008.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vashisht, Tushar Indian business executives Living people People from Karnal University of Pennsylvania alumni Delhi Technological University alumni 1985 births