Mishra says that the company is doing well financially and is on track to achieve EBITDA positive status by the end of this financial year
Healthcare start-up RED.Health plans to raise Series C funding by the end of FY25. The Hyderabad-based company will utilise the funds to focus on technology and clinical efficiency. The last fundraise of the company was in May 2024 when it raised $20 million led by Jungle Ventures.
"We are seeing significant interest from global venture capital funds [on the upcoming fundraise], largely due to the ongoing consolidation and improvement in India's healthcare market,” says Shilesh Mishra, VP-marketing and brand management, RED.Health.
Backed by Kalaari Capital, healthcare start-up RED.Health claims to dispatch ambulances in eight minutes. RED.Health has raised $43 million in funding from its Seed to Series B round since its launch in 2016.
The company has been focussing on leveraging the usage of AI to focus on providing prompt responses during medical emergencies. "Our goal is to develop a healthcare system that can recommend where a patient should go in case of an emergency and suggest possible treatments based on their symptoms,” adds Mishra.
The company, which compares itself to Amazon 10 years ago, is still building trust but is confident in its growth. To boost demand, it has been partnering with hospitals, including a tie-up with Fortis Hospital. RED.Health tied up with Fortis hospital in the NCR region last year for emergency response service. Under the collaboration, 10 GPS-enabled advanced life support ambulances were deployed by RED.Health to the hospital. Further, an independent fleet of over 30 vehicles has been given in NCR so that the ambulances reach the patients within 30 minutes.
Company’s Revenue Growth and Future Targets
RED.Health, however, did face financial challenges that reportedly led to firing its employees as well. An article by Morning Context in September 2023 mentions that the company fired around a hundred of employees in March 2023. The report highlights that the company was facing a cash crunch and was delaying the salaries of its employees.
However, founder and chief executive officer Prabhdeep Singh, denied the claims and told Morning Context, “We have only laid off two people in the last three months for ethical reasons. Nothing that is not usual, absolute reallocation of resources.”
In February, a Mint report also mentioned that the company delayed January salaries. Singh responded, stating that most salaries were already paid and that the delay was due to awaiting funds from a closed funding round.
Meanwhile, Mishra says that the company is doing well financially. "We are also on track to become EBITDA positive by the end of this financial year and are working towards becoming cash independent. Our goal is to avoid any layoffs and continue to support every member of our team,” he adds.
Mishra says that the past layoffs were not solely due to financial constraints. It was a combination of performance, market dynamics, and voluntary departures. “We could have handled the situation better, but we are confident that we are now in a much stronger position,” he adds. The company claims that it reported more than Rs 200 crore in revenue in FY24 and targets two-fold growth for FY25.
As per data platform Tracxn. India has more than 11,000 health tech start-ups. Additionally, a report by Bain & Company released in March 2024, says, “Investments in healthcare innovation have typically ranged from $1.5 billion to $2 billion annually.” Some of the healthcare start-ups include MediBuddy, Tata 1mg, HealthifyMe, and PharmEasy. Ziqitza Health Care, GVK EMRI, and Hanuman are the direct competitors of the start-up.