HealthifyMe announced Tuesday that it has acqui-hired the team of Under45, an online service that helps people find vaccination slots for COVID.

Besides that, HealthifyMe has also opened vaccine slot bookings on its app and website, healthifyme.com.

“Now, HealthifyMe, an Application Service Provider (ASP) with CoWin, will allow its clients to book slots directly from the provider. As part of HealthifyMe’s vaccinator slot booking initiative, the Under45 team has also been acqui-hired, according to a statement.

The company had earlier launched Vaccinateme.in in 10 languages, which helped over 8 million people find slots and be notified when they became available.

The Under45 platform was created by Chennai-based techie Berty Thomas, and sends vaccination slot alerts to users opting for the service via Telegram messaging app.

Over 670 channels on Telegram are used to deliver vaccine alerts live to 4.1 million subscribers.

HealthifyMe announced Thomas’ hiring as an Associate Director. Thomas will work with HealthifyMe’s Manan Chandan, Senior Director, and Project Lead for VaccinateMe.

Also joining him are Suchdeep Juneja (who developed mhVaccineTracker) and Chandraaditya Putuveru (who launched the Twitter bot – BloreVaccine).

“Together, they can boost the company’s efforts to book millions of vaccination slots faster for Indians. “The initiative will continue to run free of charge,” the statement said.

In total, VaccinateMe.in, Under45.in, BloreVaccine and mhVaccineTracker have helped over 12 million people find vaccination slots, and sent over 100 million alerts via SMS, Telegram and WhatsApp.

According to surveys conducted by the company, about 35 per cent of those who received these alerts found a vaccine via these alerts. A USD 1 million investment has already been pledged by HealthifyMe and more will be made as and when it is needed.

We are now taking it to the next logical level by jointly launching a solution that allows millions of Indians to schedule their vaccinations online and through the HealthifyMe website and app,” said Tushar Vashist, HealthifyMe co-founder and CEO.

Thomas said Under45 and HealthifyMe have pioneered vaccination slot alert systems in the country.

“Under45.in” and Vaccinateme.in combined are an exciting opportunity for us that will strengthen India’s vaccination efforts,” Thomas said.