Startup Watchlist: 11 Indian Healthtech Startups To Watch Out For In 2018
This article is part of Inc42’s Startup Watchlist annual series where we list the top startups to watch for 2018 from industries like AI, Logistics, HealthTech etc. Explore all the stories from ‘Startup Watchlist’ series here.
In May 2016, a Forbes article written by VC Dave Chase stated 98% digital health startups (globally) to be walking dead and synonymous with Zombies. He feared that these startups are unable to go beyond angel funding and lack resources to scale ahead. Fast forward to 2017, one can easily witness the change in the scenario.
As per an August 2017 CB insights report, globally, the sector attracted over $10 Bn funding with the market moving closer to consolidations, indicating the rise of big powers. Another report reveals that since 2016,$4.3 Bn has been invested in Asia HealthTech across 296 deals up to and including Q3 2017.ace.
Traditionally, Healthtech startups were associated with those providing diagnostic, enterprise, medicine delivery solutions, etc. However, a new breed of startups has emerged trying to solve issues on the root causes such as the consumer lifestyle, mental stress, early diagnosis of genetic disorders and even reducing the after effects of painful processes such as chemotherapy in the recent years.
These startups are not only bridging the gaps between the doctors and the patients but are also creating an ecosystem to facilitate a better and faster healthcare environment.
How The HealthTech Sector Fared In India
According to a recent PWC report, India ranks among the top 10 global growth markets for nutritional food and beverages. Further, the Indian healthcare market, which is worth $100 Bn, is likely to grow at 23% CAGR to reach $280 Bn by 2020, as per a Deloitte 2016 report.
A rising middle-class, state-of-the-art healthcare facilities, expert physicians, and increased dependency on technology to facilitate healthcare at the prevention stage are driving the growth of the industry in India, thereby expecting the industry to attain double-digit growth.
According to a United Nations Population Fund report, the number of people aged 60+ in India will increase from 100 Mn in 2011 to 300 Mn by 2050. And of these 300 Mn, 200 Mn will suffer from chronic ailments such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and more.
Another report reveals that at present the average medical expenditure of Indians in a private hospital comes to around INR 32,375. Moreover, if we talk about life-threatening diseases such as cancer, then, according to a 2004 research, the spend in a home increases 36–44% more than in other households with similar demographics.
Thus, opening up doors of opportunities for healthtech startups trying to disrupt untapped niche sectors in this space. As per Inc42 DataLabs, in 2017, Indian healthtech startups raised about $346 Mn across 111 deals.
A significant contribution here is although made by online pharmacy startups such as Netmeds which secured $14 Mn funding. In addition, the other startups who are already leading the brigade of Indian healthtech ecosystem include 1mg, Medfinder, Curefit, Practo, Curofy, Portea Medical, Medgenome among others.
As we will soon be stepping into another year, let’s have a look at 11 healthtech startups (raised less than $30 Mn funding), handpicked by Inc42 DataLabs team, which showcase the similar promise to grow and keep their flags flying high in 2018.
Indian HealthTech Startups To Watch Out For In 2018
Consure Medical
Founded in 2012, Consure Medical is a medical device company focused on developing medical devices for the management of critical care and long-term care patients. This product emerged from the Stanford Biodesign program.
It is fundamentally catering to the $7 Bn fecal incontinence market with a differentiated product and aims to innovate a technology platform that would augment the way infection control and wound care was being approached in hospitals and in homes.
Fecal incontinence (FI) is the inability to control bowel movement, leading to the involuntary and untimely release of feces or flatus. As mentioned on the startup’s website, hospitals lose millions of dollars in poor clinical outcomes, withheld Medicare reimbursements, and missed quality targets due to fecal contamination. Although FI is a benign condition, its clinical complications such as bed sores and cross-infections are often devastating to both patient and the care provider.
As claimed by the founders, they have a unique distinction of being one of the few emerging market medical device companies to have both US FDA clearance and granted patents in all important markets including USPTO.
Its first flagship product is Qora, which is a stool management kit specifically for bedridden diarrhoea patients. After raising an undisclosed amount of Series B funding in May 2016 from investors such as Accel Partners, Indian Angel Network, India Innovation Fund, and India Venture Partners, the startup is paving its way ahead into the international markets such as Japan and the US.
There are more products in the pipeline that the company plans to launch in the next one to three years. With an initial focus on patients in ICUs and general wards, Consure Medical plans to move to enhance care in step-down units, nursing homes, and at-home patients.
Consure Medical is trying to tap an opportunity in one of the most niche sectors of healthtech industry and is filling the much-needed gap. The low-cost products developed by the company will certainly give the company an edge in both the local and global markets and it would be worth watching what other innovations this healthtech startup has in its kitty to create a hygienic environment for over 16 Mn Indian and 100 Mn global patients worldwide.
DocTalk
DocTalk is a mobile application that allows users to safely save all their medical files and history on the cloud so that they never have to carry their files again. A part of Y Combinator’s Winter 2017 batch, the startup aims to work on an AI-based, on-demand virtual assistant application to simplify the Indian healthcare ecosystem.
Using the app, patients can also chat with their doctors and get prescriptions on-the-go. The platform also services doctors by preventing revenue leakage, while also assisting them in maintaining relationships with patients.
As Co-founder Akshat Goenka shared in a blog post on Medium, “We started reading up on the Indian healthcare ecosystem and some of our most basic assumptions were proven drastically wrong. We quickly realised that there is a great opportunity to simplify problems but the deeper we looked, the greater the problems seemed.”
Within a span of two years, the startup has now extended its presence in Delhi, Mumbai, and Hyderabad. DocTalk’s messaging platform has been availed by up to 500 doctors and more than 30,000 patients as of November 2017. Also, it has raised $5 Mn in a funding round led by Khosla Ventures and Matrix Partners India.
A report by KPMG and the Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI) points out that more than 75% of India’s pharmacies, around 60% of hospitals and 80% of doctors are located in urban areas. As pointed out above, the startups like Doctalk are thus filling the much-needed gap and are trying to provide a better doctor to patient ratio in a densely populated country like India.
Grow Fit
According to the World Economic Forum, in India alone, over 6 Mn lives are lost every year due to lifestyle diseases. And the economic burden of lifestyle diseases has been estimated to be over $4.58 Tn by 2030.
Launched in September 2015 by Jyotsna Pattabiraman, Grow Fit is trying to address this gap with its healthtech platform. It aims to help over 300 Mn Indians who are at risk of contracting lifestyle diseases, with its expert coaching, health foods and behavioral insights.
The platform consists of a group of nutritionists, food technologists, counsellors, technologists, and product people who want to use the power of the mobile to make health a daily habit. It now offers its solutions on three fronts: the diet chart; a range of packaged foods that is available online; and, in Bengaluru, a central kitchen that makes and delivers food in the city.
In September 2016, Grow Fit also entered the functional beverages field with the acquisition of Drink King to expand its offerings to areas including expert health advice, customised diet plans, therapeutic and functional foods, and nutritional beverages.
As of June 2017, the company claims to have an 80% success rate. As per a company statement, the Grow Fit mobile app has been downloaded over a million times (Android and iOS) and delivers about 10,000 healthy meals a day in Bengaluru currently. The company uses data science and machine learning to identify and validate strategies for customer success.
In its endeavour, Grow Fit has been joined by investors and mentors such as Manipal Education, Medical Group (MEMG), SAR Group, The Grover Trust, Krishnan Ganesh and Meena Ganesh of GrowthStory as well as Dr. Ranjan Pai, the MD & CEO of MEMG and Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder, Infosys.
Moving ahead in 2018, we will be watching Grow Fit on three fronts — its novel approach, investment in R&D, and its technology platform.With Indians gradually getting concerned over their health and looking for convenient measures, the segment is expected to further expand only, thus opening up a number of opportunities for Grow Fit. Further, Grow Fit has the ability to address both national and international markets.
IGenetics
Launched by the trio from Actis PE, having over a decade of experience in healthcare investment, strategy and marketing areas, iGenetics is working in the area of bringing better tools in the hands of the future medical community.
The startup offers clinically relevant differential diagnosis panels in addition to a highly accurate range of individual laboratory tests specifically in areas of critical care, oncology, gynaecology, and infertility.
iGenetic is housed in an ICH, NABL, and CAP compliant laboratory with its central processing laboratory spread over a 10,000 sq ft facility in Mumbai with satellite labs across the country.
According to a company statement, as of March 2017, the startup offers 1,400 tests, including advanced tests for cancer, infertility, and infectious diseases as well as routine laboratory tests.
As claimed on the company’s LinkedIn Page, iGenetic has the capability to develop many in-house tests and products which are not available in the market today with several “first in the market” tests already commercialised.
The company has so far raised $20.48 Mn, with major $19.5 Mn secured in March 2017 from CDC Group Plc, the financial institution run by the UK government, and the Manipal Education and Medical Group (MEMG), who have together pledged to invest $74 Mn in healthcare networks and service providers in India, Africa and South Asia.
The future-ready generation is looking forward to solutions like these to cure genetic diseases. It will be worth watching how far iGenetic can take its innovations in the coming years.
