The Sova Health Story
Millions across India suffer from chronic gut health issues that harm their physical wellness and happiness. An unexpected partnership is aiming to solve this problem.
Once a successful IT executive at a leading Bangalore firm, Arjun's life had slowly unraveled over the past two years due to…
…unpredictable digestive issues.
What started as occasional digestive discomfort had escalated into a nightmare that controlled every aspect of his life. The constant bloating left him curled up in pain.
It led to underperformance at his job. He was fired. And then his family collapsed.
Tanveer Singh, co-founder and CEO of Sova Health, recalls:
“He lost his job and he lost his wife because he lost his job.”
By the time Arjun found Sova Health, he had been unemployed for two years, living with his parents, and battling severe depression.
Max Kushnir, Co-founder and Chief Science Officer of Sova Health, says:
“He was in a state of total despair. He was thinking about ending his life. I've had conversations with him because one of the coaches, the nutritionist that was dealing with him said, ‘Max, I think he's suicidal. I think there are problems there.’”
For eight months, the Sova team worked intensively with Arjun, starting with a comprehensive gut microbiome test that revealed significant bacterial imbalances. They provided him with custom-made probiotics tailored specifically to his gut profile, ongoing nutritional counseling, and constant support through WhatsApp.
“And little by little, when the gut got better and he was able to function, we gave him his life back, pretty much," Max explains. "And there are many such examples. This is not an outlier.”
Today, Arjun is employed again. He goes to work without fear. He can sit through meetings without anxiety.
“You know the Maslow Pyramid?” Max asks.
“Pooping is really high up there.”
India's First Precision Health Platform
Stories like Arjun's aren't anomalies at Sova—they're the norm. Sova reaches 390 cities across India and has served over 100,000 customers today.
With an 85% Net Promoter Score and customers willing to wait 85 days (during the pre-launch period; now it is 10 days) for their customer-made probiotics, Sova has created something differentiated: a healthcare solution that actually transforms lives rather than just managing symptoms.
Max reflects:
“Having a chronic disease is an experience of exclusion. You can't travel because you constantly have to think about where the next toilet is. You can’t go to eat with friends because nothing on the menu suits you... You feel excluded,” Max reflects.
“When I was dealing with diabetes patients, I also had very many touching stories, but when I started doing gut health, it actually hit me. When you have a bad day as a diabetic, it’s a bad number on your glucometer, with no physical issues.”
“But when you can’t pass a motion for 5 days you are in pain.”
This is why Sova exists - not to build another supplement company or health platform, but to fundamentally change what healthcare can achieve when it's truly personalized.
Here is a customer who agreed to share his story on video with us:
Sova Health has built India's most advanced precision health platform, starting with gut health and expanding into a comprehensive ecosystem of personalized wellness solutions.
“I remember last year (2024), when we crossed the 2000 customers milestone, I was thinking, ‘Oh my God, 2,000 people actually finished our program start to finish! And for a very good percentage of them, it was probably life-changing.”
The company's breakthrough innovation is SovaX - truly personalized probiotics that are manufactured automatically in individual batches of 90 days' supply in less than 15 minutes per order (manufacturing time).
This represents a fundamental shift from mass-produced, one-size-fits-all supplements to precision medicine at scale.
At its core, Sova offers three integrated services:
1. Advanced Diagnostic Testing
India's most comprehensive gut microbiome test, analyzing the unique bacterial ecosystem in each customer's digestive system
Plans to expand into blood biomarker testing for protein and multivitamins (2025) and skin microbiome testing for dermatological health (2026)
2. Custom-Manufactured Personal Supplements
SovaX: Custom-made probiotics manufactured individually for each customer based on their unique gut profile
Over-the-counter supplement line for common deficiencies
Future precision supplements for protein and skin health
3. Expert-Guided Health Programs
One-on-one consultations with gut health experts
Continuous support through WhatsApp-based coaching
Comprehensive lifestyle and nutrition guidance
The process begins with a comprehensive gut microbiome test (₹7,000), followed by expert consultation, and culminates in custom-made probiotics (₹4,000 per month).
The platform's value proposition is simple but revolutionary: instead of trial-and-error approaches to health, Sova provides objective, data-driven solutions tailored to each individual's unique biology.
An Unlikely Partnership
The story of Sova Health began at the UNLEASH conference in Singapore in 2018, just before both Tanveer and Max started their programs at the design-thinking school at Hasso Plattner Institute in Berlin. HPI Berlin is a sister school of the famous D-School at Stanford University, focused on design thinking.
Tanveer had just moved to Berlin a month before traveling to the conference in Singapore. Meanwhile, Max was relocating to Berlin himself two months later to join the institute.
“Max and I were standing in the same queue on the ladder, and that's how we started talking to each other,” Tanveer recalls.
“Two minutes later, we were going through this obstacle race around the same time.”
Once they had returned to Berlin, they began meeting every Wednesday at each other's homes, conducting design thinking sessions with post-it notes covering the walls.
Tanveer says:
“We did proper design thinking sprints together. It was like a gap year for both of us. Neither of us had a full-time job. So we were actually quite invested in this.”
“One of the first ideas we had was to launch a pre-biotic yogurt brand. We called it YoGut.”
They would eventually name their company ‘Wednesday Health’—a tribute to those formative sessions that shaped their vision for precision healthcare.
Tanveer Singh’s Journey
Tanveer Singh was born in Bhubaneswar to a Sikh family with roots in Myanmar, he was shaped by both athletic discipline and entrepreneurial spirit.
“I grew up in Bhubaneswar, which was a small town in the 90s. There was limited infrastructure for schooling, so my parents made the extra effort to send me to boarding school. I attended The Doon School in Dehradun.”
At Doon, Tanveer excelled at multiple sports, playing tennis at the national level while also competing in hockey, cricket, and football.
“Doon has this system of playing seasonal sports. My school routine would be to get up at 6 am and go play an hour and a half of sports. I would play 4 different sports at 4 different times of the year.”
His transition from sports to entrepreneurship was driven by a data-driven approach to health.
“Once I stopped playing competitive tennis, I understood that health is not just about fitness in terms of physical conditioning. Nutrition has a huge role to play.”
This personal journey sparked a lifelong obsession with health optimization.
“I don't like unsolicited advice. I don't like following things just for the sake of it. I like to be convinced. And data is my conviction. The more data you throw at me, the more logical it is for me to make a decision, and the easier it is to make it a habit.”
Before Sova, Tanveer had co-founded and served as CEO of Efficient Bazaar, a centralized procurement solution for the hospitality industry, from 2015 to 2018.
He was also a founding member of India operations and was Director of Operations at Juvalia & You, a fashion accessories brand, from 2012 to 2015.
Max Kushnir’s Journey
Max brings world-class scientific expertise to the partnership, with a background that reads like an international adventure novel.
Born in 1985 in Chișinău, Moldova, then part of the Soviet Union, Max migrated to Israel with his family at the age of six.
“I grew up poor but came from a very educated family. My mother has a PhD in math, and a master's in engineering. But because of this huge exodus of people that came into Israel in a very short period of time, there were no opportunities.”
Max's path was far from linear.
After military service, he worked in theater doing lighting and stage design, then embarked on a legendary 7,000-kilometer motorcycle journey across India on a Royal Enfield Bullet.
“I started in Manali, went to Ladakh, then to Kashmir, then back to all of Punjab, all of Rajasthan, Varanasi, and ended up in Goa.”
“Then I met my wife, and I decided that I wanted to become someone. Before that, I didn't care to be honest.”
“So, I went and got myself a bachelor's degree in biotechnology and plant science from the Hebrew University. And then I got myself a master's in population genetics from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. It is by far the best institution in Israel to do any science. This institute is a world leader in microbiome research.”
After finally getting done with his formal education, Max took his first step towards entrepreneurship.
“I started a personalized infant nutrition company based on microbiome data and Israel's first Community-powered Biohackerspace.”
Max's scientific rigor initially made him skeptical of supplements.
“When Tanveer and I met, Tanveer was like, ‘Let's do supplements.’ And I was like, ‘No, we're not doing supplements. Supplements are evil.’ That was literally my standpoint.”
But his perspective evolved through rigorous research.
“At the time, I believed nutrition and habit changes were far superior solutions. I still believe in this. Now, after 2 years of running a very effective habit and nutrition program for metabolic diseases, I realized supplements definitely have their place in a healthy routine.”
“What I also learned is that supplements are not evil at all. They're helpful if they're done right, if they're clinically validated, if they're safe. If they're evidence-based. you are either getting too much or not enough of what you need. Personalized manufacturing solve both of these issues.”
The Science and Scale of Personalized Medicine
Sova Health has cracked the code on delivering truly customized supplements at scale—a challenge that has stymied healthcare companies for decades.
Their approach combines cutting-edge science, innovative manufacturing, and sophisticated customer experience design.
The Scientific Process
The journey begins with Sova's comprehensive gut microbiome test, which uses genetic sequencing to report over 31,000 micro-organisms, including the complete database of FSSAI-approved bacterial strains, and provides insights into digestive health, immune function, and overall wellness.
Max explains:
“We extract DNA and sequence it. Basically we turn it into text. Every individual piece of DNA can be attributed to a specific organism.”
“The sequenced data is analyzed to produce a detailed gut microbiome report.”
Each test reveals a unique bacterial fingerprint, identifying specific deficiencies and imbalances that affect everything from digestion to mental health.
“70% of chronic diseases originate in the gut,” Max notes, citing research from NIH and Science Direct. “This shows lack of awareness in the market.”
Custom Manufacturing at Scale
The real breakthrough came when Sova partnered with a Bangalore-based manufacturer to develop a ‘nano factory’—a modular manufacturing system capable of producing individual formulations at an industrial scale.
“We collaborated on this from the ground up. We brainstormed the concept, they designed the machine, wrote code for the automations, and manufactured a modular setup for us. This is how we started custom-made probiotics,” Tanveer details.
“A supplement is produced in a 90-day micro-batch in less than 15 minutes per order.”
Here is a promotional video by Sova that showcases the personalized manufacturing process:
This represents a fundamental innovation in supplement manufacturing, which traditionally operates on massive batch sizes with standardized formulations. Sova can now produce batches as small as one customer's three-month supply while maintaining cost-effectiveness.
SovaX: The Customer Journey
SovaX has designed an intuitive customer experience that seamlessly guides users from testing to transformation:
Day 0-3: Customer orders gut test, kit arrives
Day 7: Sample collected and received by the lab
Day 21: Detailed report ready, expert consultation scheduled
Day 21: Custom probiotic formulation generated and manufactured
Day 30: Personalized probiotics delivered to customer
Throughout this journey, customers receive constant support through WhatsApp—a strategic choice that meets users where they already spend their time rather than forcing them to adopt new platforms like an app, etc.
“If somebody is opening WhatsApp 50 times a day, we need to build a backend that can service WhatsApp rather than trying to push a customer to change their habit and put themselves onto our app,” Tanveer explains.
Conversion and Results
The results speak for themselves. Sova maintains a 70%+ conversion rate from gut tests to custom probiotics. Their Net Promoter Score of 85% reflects genuine customer satisfaction, not mere product preference.
Quality and Evidence
Every aspect of Sova's process is grounded in scientific evidence.
The company is in the process of publishing clinical studies in partnership with a leading hospital chain in India, demonstrating the efficacy of its approach and maintaining strict quality controls throughout manufacturing.
Max's scientific background ensures that every formulation is clinically validated and safe. He explains:
“Whenever you have an offering, especially in the medical field, that is grounded in evidence—that's an objective measure of what you need—then people are willing to pay a premium for that.”
Traction
The company’s unit economics demonstrate the viability of personalized medicine at scale. These numbers demonstrate that precision medicine isn't only scientifically superior, but also economically sustainable.
SovaX actually seems to have almost no working capital requirements:
All orders of SovaX are pre-paid with zero Cash on Delivery (COD).
Healthy Gross Margins coupled with excellent CM3 metrics, net after shipment+warehousing, brand marketing, and performance marketing, show healthy prospects for the core offering of the company.
The Future of Precision Health
Sova's approach represents a template for the future of healthcare - moving from one-size-fits-all solutions to truly personalized health.
And it has also attracted investors of good standing.
Tanveer thought of going to market to raise a small round in Q4 FY25, however, his existing investors themselves ended up oversubscribing to it:
“We raised a small round last quarter, which was oversubscribed by existing investors so we never took it to market. But it felt great to have their vote of confidence.”
With the growth that the company is witnessing, the founders felt it is the right time now to raise their Series A round.
Their success has demonstrated that consumers are willing to pay premiums for evidence-based personalization and that such personalization can be delivered at scale.
The barrier to starting a Nutraceutical DTC brand in India is very low. Contract manufacturing, logistical services, and marketplaces are available to anyone. Lax regulations also enable absurd claims.
Max notes:
“The combination of diagnostics and customization solves these problems.”
“This is the right for Sova to exist. We don't play in the same league with all these other guys. It's just not what we do.”
As they expand into protein, multivitamins, and skin health, Sova continues to refine their model of precision nutraceuticals, setting the standard for how healthcare should evolve in the 21st century.
The company's ability to deliver life-changing results—like Arjun's* story in the beginning—isn't just about better products. It's about a fundamentally different approach to health that treats each person as the unique individual they are, rather than as a generic patient with standard needs.
Tanveer signs off:
“Gut health is a great entry point for us. It's a great proof of concept. Where else can we go with this?” Tanveer asks. “We are already working on other categories using a similar framework of test-backed, personalized products. We call it evidence-based precision health.”
*The name of Arjun in the story at the beginning of the article has been changed to protect privacy.
Sova Health is raising a Series-A. If you are interested in having a detailed discussion with the management and have access to Sova’s data room to learn more details about the company, please write to us at banjan@tal64.com.
Addendum:
Tanveer mentioned:
“Repeat purchase. Bought SovaX for himself first and now for the whole family. Three members.”