How have health tech start-ups fared so far this year

Mumbai: More than 800 start-ups in health technology have been founded since last year. The sector saw $311 million in funding to 77 of these start-ups in 2015, but hasn’t been immune to the overall declining funding sentiment so far this year. In 2016 till date, 82 health tech companies have raised only $80 million, as per data provided by Tracxn, a start-up tracker. Also, 15 such start-ups shut shop.

Meanwhile, healthcare financing, patient education, medical tourism facilitator gained investor interest this year.

Mint takes a look at the 13 health tech segments:

1. Diagnostics

There are 35 diagnostics health tech start-ups that have been founded since 2015—they could be marketplaces and aggregators of diagnostic testing, such as eKincare (Aayuv Technologies Pvt. Ltd), or consumer facing genetic testing companies like Mapmygenome (Mapmygenome India Ltd).

While eight such start-ups raised $1.88 million last year, only two such start-ups have raised a sum over $300,000 this year.

2. E-Commerce

Companies that have built an online platform to purchase prescription medicine, over-the-counter drugs, personal care products and medical devices are part of this segment. As many as 95 start-ups have been founded in this segment since 2015, of which five raised $62 million last year, out of which Netmeds Marketplace Ltd alone raised close to $50 million in a round led by OrbiMed, a healthcare-focused investment firm .

The funding since then has declined to 11 companies that raised $28.7 million this year. These include 1mg Technologies Pvt. Ltd that has raised over Rs100 crore in a series B round of funding from HBM Healthcare Investments AG, Maverick Capital Ventures, Sequoia Capital and Omidyar Network.

3. Enterprise

The maximum funded segment in health tech, it saw $153.55 million in funding last year for 14 start-ups, out of which Practo Technologies Pvt. Ltd raised $120 million from China’s Tencent, Sequoia Capital Global Equities, Google Capital, Sequoia India and Matrix Partners, among other investors.

Enterprise refers to those companies which provide an online platform to healthcare professionals and organizations to improve processes involved in preventive care and healthcare delivery.

Apart from Practo, other start-ups in this segment are Health Enabler, Attune, Ziffi, Qikwell and HelpingDoc.

This year 14 companies raised funds, but the funding amount drastically dropped to less than $4.5 million.

4. Fitness

This is one of the few segments in health tech that have shown an uptick in funding activity. 117 such start-ups have been founded since 2015, which are marketplaces for discovery and booking of fitness centres, coaches and membership pass for various gyms and fitness classes.

These also include personal fitness management mobile application and wearable fitness tracker such as GOQii that recently raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Ratan Tata, the interim chairman (or chairman emeritus) of Tata Sons Ltd.

20 start-ups raised close to $16 million last year, that rose to $21.2 million this year across 10 start-ups such as HealthifyMe, CureFit, Fitternity, among others.

5. Healthcare delivery

This segment has seen the maximum number of start-ups—159—being founded in health tech since 2015. These are tech-enabled companies that help in the delivery of healthcare services through a third-party provider. It includes companies offering telemedicine, home healthcare services and ambulance service such as Lybrate, Portea and WelcomeCure.

About 15 such start-ups raised over $56 million last year, which declined to $14.8 million across 21 start-ups in 2016.

6. Healthcare discovery

These start-ups are online databases and communities for finding and connecting with blood donors such as Zoctr, Medinfi and Social Blood.

While this segment is also quite populated with 122 start-ups that have been launched since 2015, only one was able to raise an undisclosed amount last year, while three such start-ups have raised close to $1 million this year.

7. Medical devices

Start-ups such as Perfient Healthcare, Trivitron Healthcare, Forus Health and Cura develop or make any instrument, appliance or any other article to be used for prevention, screening, investigation, diagnosis, alleviation of medical disorders, or for measurement, restoration and support of bodily functions.

Nine such start-ups were funded last year as well as in 2016, however, the funding dropped from $8.6 million to $1.2 million, respectively.

8. Medical tourism facilitator

It is counted among the segment which has seen entrepreneurial interest. Though 19 such start-ups have been founded since 2015, but it is yet to attract investors’ attention. While none of them got funded last year, one raised $187,000 this year. This segment remains among the least funded among health tech start-ups.

These companies offer listing, marketplace and concierge services for medical tourists such as LyfBoat and PlanMyMedicalTrip.

9. Patient education

These start-ups provide online information on drugs, diseases and symptoms, medical treatments and other healthcare related topics. These include CureJoy, Modasta and CureInstant.

This space saw increased investor interest this year—six start-ups raised $6.35 million this year as compared to one start-up raising $1.15 million last year.

10. Personal health management

These start-ups provide digital solutions to help users prevent, self-triage (diagnose), monitor and treat (Therapeutics) any medical condition to occur without involvement of any third party. These start-ups include companies such as Maya, Touchkin, Diabeto and Inayo.

While 54 such start-ups have been founded since last year, this segment saw minimal funding last year—about $300,000 raised by one start-up. However, that increased to four start-ups raising about $1.4 million in 2016.

11. Preventive care

These are start-ups that offer preventive healthcare solutions. Only 10 such start-ups have been founded since last year, which haven’t seen any funding activity in 2016 yet. Only one such start-up, AllizHealth, raised $350,000 last year.

12. Suite

The companies in this segment provide multiple solutions for the healthcare industry such as online consultation, health insurance and e-commerce provided by CallHealth. This segments also includes start-ups like Innov4Sight that provide data analytics, devices for diagnosis and training to health professionals.

None of these start-ups saw any funding activity this year, while two such start-ups raised $12 million in 2015.

13. Direct to consumer healthcare financing

Such start-ups provide different financing solutions to patients such as healthcare loans and payment plans for healthcare services they are availing. Only one such start-up has been founded since last year and another this year that raised $500,000, compared to no funding last year.