Health Tech StartUps
Introduction
Things are looking up for biotech and health care industries this year as more investments are channelled into these sectors. More entrepreneurs are creating companies that help build this
sector of the economy. The role of technology in this sector isn’t a small joke and this has reflected in the enthusiasm of start-ups who are investing in the technological aspects of the sector.
Situation
As the human population rises and mortality increases, the need to invest in the health sector has caught the eyes of a majority of individuals. This has also led to increased investments in the technology that help cater for the needs of the dying human. There are new innovations and improvements to the equipment that are being used, more discoveries are being made as a result of these new technology.
The start-ups that are involved in this sector provide services ranging from healthcare services to devices to personal health management.
This is a sector that requires a lot of investment and focus, as enough attention isn’t paid to this
aspect of the healthcare industry.
Problem
The problems faced by those in this sector are:
1. The start-ups in India do not have a proper platform or framework to do high-end testing
and lack adequate avenues to collaborate with hospitals.
2. Funding and lack of right platform to test their products.
3. A big problem is information asymmetry.
4. Slow Growth.
5. Doctors are hard to find.
Implication
The implication that the above problems causes are innumerable. Starting from the lack of a proper framework to the lack of doctors. Think of how you can’t do without your mobile device or your laptops and think about how this affects the healthcare industry.
Need Payoff
With over 1900+ companies in the sector, 178 funded since 2011, $413M invested in 2015/16.
Accel Partner, Round Glass, IDG Ventures, Villgro, Ventureast, Currae are the most active investors.
There are subsector here.
They are:
1. Consumer - Healthcare Services:
They provide solutions that help a user to get health care service from a third party provider. It includes solutions such as listing, appointment booking, marketplaces, and remote and in-home health care delivery solutions. There have been about 1062 registered companies in the past 6 years, with a total investment of $404.3M.
They are divided into 5 categories:
Physicians: Platforms connecting users with doctors virtually (Telemedicine) or in-person (House call), and helping then in availing consultation with doctor offline (Listing, Appointment booking).
E-Commerce: Includes both B2C and B2B e-commerce platforms for buying prescription medicine,
OTC Drugs, personal care products and medical devices.
Fitness: Includes online platform for discovering, connecting and booking appointment with fitness centres and fitness coaches.
Suite: Platforms providing discovery and on demand services for more than one healthcare service provider.
Home Healthcare Service: Includes companies offering at-home healthcare solutions such as elderly care, physiotherapy, vaccination, doctor-on call, diagnostics test and nursing care.
2. Medical Devices:
It includes any instrument, apparatus, appliance, material or other article, whether used alone or in combination with other devices or software intended by its manufacturer to be used specifically for prevention, screening, investigation, diagnosis, monitoring, therapy, or alleviation of medical disorders; or used for measurement, restoration, support or augmentation of bodily functions.
There have been about 104 registered companies founded in 8 years with an overall funding amount of $116M.
There are 5 categories in this subsector:
Clinical Diagnostics: A physical device used for diagnosis of medical conditions in a clinical setup.
Therapeutics: Medical devices used in the treatment of a disease/ disorder across therapeutic areas.
Monitoring: A physical device used for monitoring of clinical parameters, either continuously or on periodic basis.
Suite: Includes companies offering medical devices in multiple verticals.
Support Systems: Devices to manage/ support regular functioning of the human body in non-critical situations.
3. Enterprise:
Includes enterprise facing solutions (B2B or B2B2C) which help healthcare professionals and organizations in all the processes involved in Preventive care and Health care delivery. There have been 398 registered companies. With an overall funding amount of $67M.
There are 5 categories here:
Hospital Management and Information System: It includes solutions which help healthcare providers to manage day to day activities and store healthcare information. It includes solutions catering to hospitals, doctors, clinics and laboratories.
Life Sciences Software: Software solutions which help Pharmaceutical, and Biotech companies to accelerate drug discovery, advance clinical trial efficiencies, accentuate manufacturing productivity and amplify sales and marketing effectiveness.
Clinical Decision Support System: Companies offering decision support to care providers for diagnosis and care planning.
Professional Network: It includes online platforms which help healthcare professionals network, collaborate on clinical cases, manage referrals, share employment opportunity, etc.
Suite: Suite solution includes companies which offer multiple solutions such as hospital management and information system, administrative solution, learning and development solutions, etc.
4. Consumer -
Personal Health Management: Digital solutions that helps patients to prevent, self-triage (Diagnose), manage (Monitor), and treat (Therapeutics) any medical condition without involvement of any third party. There has been 183 registered companies in the last 4 years. With an overall funding amount of $25.1M.
There are 5 categories here:
Monitoring: Companies which offer connected devices and mobile or web-based solutions to measure and record health related data including body vitals, nutrients among others and data that indicate progression of diseases.
Patient Education: Companies which help users to find information on drugs, diseases & symptoms, medical treatments and other healthcare related topics. Includes companies providing healthcare specific social networking platforms.
Personal Health Record: Mobile and web-based solutions for consumers to keep health records electronically and share the data with providers as and when required.
Patient Aid: Companies providing solutions to help patients / caregivers to better manage the effects of medical conditions and improve treatment outcomes and quality of life.
Therapeutics: Companies using connected devices, apps, software and web platforms to cure diseases and/or reduce or improve the symptoms associated with diseases.
Conclusion
This sector is an important one that should be heavily funded but seems to be less funded because of the challenges but these challenges are surmountable if there is good planning and research they should be a skyrocketing of start-ups and investors that care for human life.
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