Anyone who has walked into a hospital in India knows the drill: moving from one counter to another, navigating multiple floors for diagnostic tests and investigations, and generally struggling to find one’s way around the place... and all while being unwell too.

A new crop of healthcare startups aim to find a cure for this.

“You can’t change how care is delivered unless you actually deliver the care,” says Varun Dubey, founder of SuperHealth, explaining the broader shift that is underway in India’s health-tech ecosystem.

No longer content with just building discovery platforms or digital layers, startups are venturing into the business of healthcare delivery itself.

In a country where access to quality secondary and tertiary medical care remains uneven, particularly outside large cities, the startups view the gaps not as a challenge but an opportunity.

According to Tracxn, healthcare providers in India have attracted $3.76 billion in funding since 2019. Investments peaked at $760 million in 2021, before moderating in subsequent years. In 2025, the sector raised $602 million, a 15 per cent drop from $709 million in 2024.

Where that capital is flowing to, and where it is not, is shaping the next phase of innovation.

“Significant capital is already flowing into hospital infrastructure, particularly in urban markets. What remains under-built are scalable formats such as single-speciality networks, distributed chronic-care pathways, and tech-enabled coordination models that can expand access without replicating heavy capex,” says Dr Pankaj Jethwani, Managing Partner at W Health Ventures.

This is where many new-age startups see a place for themselves.

“In a capital-intensive and regulated sector like healthcare, startups can still carve out real advantages in the right white spaces by staying asset-light and deeply patient-focused from day one,” Jethwani adds.

“What’s particularly interesting is seeing teams bring in talent and thinking from outside healthcare, and applying ideas from other industries to build differentiated models, especially in single-speciality and clinic-led setups,” he says.

The earlier wave of health-tech startups focused on aggregation or convenience. The current generation is redesigning how healthcare is delivered, priced, and experienced. Even Healthcare, for instance, integrates insurance with care delivery, with a focus on continuous preventive care.

“We bundle insurance membership with an end-to-end, full-stack healthcare platform,” says co-founder Mayank Banerjee. “That means everything from digital primary care to physical infrastructure. We currently operate two hospitals and expect to have six or seven by the end of the year.”

The next phase of expansion is focused on under-served tier-2 and tier-3 cities such as Agra, Nagpur, and Indore, he says.

The startup is betting on an asset-light model to keep costs under control.

“We spend about ₹40 lakh per bed because we don’t buy the underlying land... we lease it,” Banerjee explains. “We aim to deliver a high-quality experience, but we’re not trying to be a luxury hospital.”

Others in the ecosystem are rethinking different parts of the value chain. SuperHealth is focused on the economics of hospital infrastructure itself. By redesigning layouts, optimising operations, and embedding technology into care delivery, it aims to significantly reduce costs without compromising quality.

Asset-heavy venture

Among the earlier entrants in this space, Pristyn Care, which offers surgical services to partner hospitals, is redoing its model as the market matures.

The company, which has raised $187 million from investors across seven rounds, is moving towards building and operating its own hospitals, says co-founder Dr Vaibhav Kapoor.

It is also sharpening its focus on the under-penetrated secondary-care segment, where consolidation is inevitable as individual doctors or smaller hospitals struggle to operate independently, says Kapoor.

“Just like food delivery or e-commerce, healthcare will also consolidate into a few large players over time,” he says. “Smaller hospitals will increasingly partner with, or become part of larger chains.”

Hospital owners view this as a practical trade-off. “They continue practising, remain owners, but don’t have to deal with the operational headaches,” Kapoor says.

Pristyn Care targets around ₹1,000 crore revenue over the next two years, with EBITDA margins of 15–20 per cent. Along the way, it has made several course corrections.

“We’ve made mistakes — expanding too fast, over-hiring, and not being efficient enough. Those are things we’ve corrected now,” Kapoor says.

Unlike asset-light startups, healthcare delivery demands tight control over operations, working capital, and talent. “Large hospital chains manage cash flows and working capital extremely well; that’s something startups have to learn quickly,” Kapoor adds.

Funding market

India remains among the top global markets for healthcare startup funding, even as overall venture capital flows tighten.

“Major white spaces for hospital and clinic startups are in tier-2 and tier-3 markets,” says Neha Singh, co-founder of Tracxn. “These regions remain underfunded despite strong demand.”

She adds that areas such as chronic care, mental health, and rural primary care networks also remain under-explored. The growing number of funding deals in smaller centres such as Coimbatore, Thrissur, and Patna, however, point to a change in thinking.

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Published on March 30, 2026