Leadership bleeds at Pristyn Care amid hospital expansion push

Bagga is currently serving his notice and will fully exit by the end of October first week, said the people cited above. Bagga and Pristyn’s co-founder and chief executive Harsimarbir Singh confirmed the development.

“As Pristyn moves into a deeper direction of building a nationwide hospital chain, Gaurav has chosen to amicably pursue new areas in technology, such as AI and data engineering. Our relationship goes far beyond being colleagues, and he will always remain a friend to me personally and to the company. His role will be taken up by our product and tech leaders who have also been with the firm for 6+ years," Singh said in response to Mint’s queries.

Bagga, in a separate email, said, “My move is simply about starting a new chapter where I can apply my experience in scaling platforms and driving AI-led transformation, while continuing to cheer for the success of Pristyn Care."

Another key departure is that of Ramnik Kumar, who served as the vice president of finance for the last two years, said the two people quoted above. October 31 will mark Kumar’s last working day, they said. Ramnik is said to have been largely handling the finance department at Pristyn after the chief financial officer’s exit in March, according to one of the persons quoted above.

Pristyn’s Singh, however, denied Kumar’s exit, while Kumar did not respond to Mint’s queries. “His [Kumar’s] role is critical, and far from exiting, we are in fact reinforcing his team. Ramnik has been with us for two years," Singh said.

The Peak XV and Tiger Global-backed company has seen a spate of top-level exits in the last few months. Mint had reported in February that the firm’s finance head Prabhat Agarwal was on his way out, following other key executives, including marketing head Gagan Arora, business and operations SVP Tarun Bansal, SVP of human resources Srinivas Reddy P., and head of medical directorate Shaloo Varma.

In his latest email, Singh denied the company was witnessing a leadership churn. “With an average tenure of 5.5+ years across our top 50 leaders (essentially, the full lifespan of the company), the idea of “leadership churn" or an “unstable business" is simply not reflective of reality. Pristyn is in one of its strongest phases yet — scaling rapidly, expanding into owned hospitals, strengthening teams, and delivering profitability."

Founded in 2018 by Singh, Vaibhav Kapoor and Garima Sawhney, Pristyn Care (GHV Advanced Care Pvt Ltd) runs a network of hospitals and clinics through partners. It became a unicorn three years later, when it raised $100 million in Series E funding from Tiger Global Management, Hummingbird Ventures and others at a post-money valuation of $1.4 billion.

Course correction

In April, Mint reported that Pristyn was in talks with existing backers to raise capital to fund its expansion plans, a negotiation crucial for the firm's growth. In July, Peak XV and Hummingbird Ventures invested nearly $4 million in Pristyn’s parent company GHV Advanced Care Pvt Ltd, according to financial statements accessed by business intelligence platform Tofler.

The additional capital was meant to help Pristyn expand its footprint of hospitals, a proposition it appears to have become serious about since the beginning of the current financial year. According to Singh, Pristyn has set up 11 hospitals across 5 cities since April, with three more in the pipeline for this month.

“By March 2026, we will reach 20 hospitals, making us the fastest to achieve such scale. Our hospitals are already operating at ~15% operating margin and are cashflow EBITDA positive. Alongside this, we recently added 800 medical and nursing staff, expanded to managing 300000 sq. ft. of hospital space with 700 beds," Singh noted.

This foray is expected to drive up Pristyn’s revenues, with more than 30% of its overall business already coming from its own hospitals, according to Singh. The firm is also looking to acquire bigger hospitals that have “the potential to generate ~ ₹100 crore topline with 20%+ Ebitda annually", according to Singh.

“Given the string of setbacks, Pristyn’s pivot to hospitals is less a strategic choice and more a matter of necessity," said a health-tech startup founder, asking not to be named.

Pristyn’s pivot also comes when its consumer-facing business Beatxp—the vertical that the unicorn once pegged as its biggest asset—has undergone a slew of changes in recent years. Mint reported earlier this year that Beatxp has pulled the plug on its smartwatches category after failing to see consistent demand.

Moreover, the poor outcome from the acquisition of telemedicine platform Lybrate in June 2022, prompted the firm to switch gears. Pristyn Care is also in the midst of a legal battle with Saurabh Arora and Rahul Narang, co-founders of Lybrate, who allege the company failed to pay them in full for acquiring their startup in 2022. They moved a Delaware court in December 2023 to start arbitration proceedings against Pristyn Care, seeking $13 million in damages.

In June 2022, Pristyn Care had acquired telemedicine platform Lybrate for a reported $20-30 million to enter primary healthcare. Mint had earlier reported the company no longer sees value in the deal and was phasing out the platform.

Pristyn Care’s parent GHV Advanced Care reported an operating revenue of ₹600 crore in FY24, up from ₹452 crore in the previous year, while its total expenses shot up to ₹1,013 crore in FY24 from ₹876 crore the previous year, per data from Tofler.

The company’s had a cash balance of ₹12.8 crore in FY24, while its bank balance and other equivalents were at ₹9.4 crore. While trade receivables were at ₹105 crore, the company’s financial assets had dropped to ₹341 crore from ₹570 crore in the year before. GHV has not filed its FY25 statements yet.