Ashwin Naik

Healthtech Startups Are Raising Millions — and Still Failing. In the last 18 months, Indian healthtech startups raised over ₹9,000 crore (~$1.1B) in funding. And yet — 🔻 Over 70% of them are pre-revenue 🔻 Nearly 1 in 3 have pivoted more than twice 🔻 At least 22 funded startups shut down between 2023–2024 (despite raising seed to Series A rounds) Because raising money has become a milestone. But survival isn’t success. ⸻ What’s going wrong? 🚨 Founders raise to survive, not to scale 🚨 MVPs are built for demo days — not doctors 🚨 AI is slapped on dashboards — with zero clinical validation 🚨 ₹30–₹50 crore burn before first revenue 🚨 CACs rising 4x faster than LTV in Tier 1 cities 🚨 No real adoption, no last-mile trust, no recurring usage And when investor pressure hits? They start slashing teams, cutting features, and hunting for acquirers. ⸻ Meanwhile, a quiet exception is rewriting the playbook. 📍 No venture capital 📍 No vanity metrics 📍 Just 100 crore+ in real revenue, and climbing That company is Clinics on Cloud. A bootstrapped healthtech model solving for the real India — ✅ Remote villages ✅ Industrial workers ✅ Government health missions ✅ School children and women in underserved areas Through a network of Health ATMs, digital diagnostics, and clinical intelligence, Clinics on Cloud is delivering over 30,000 checkups per week — with outcomes, not just app downloads. ⸻ This is what a purpose-led, product-first company looks like: 🎉Built by real-world healthcare experience 🎉Profitable since year one 🎉Operational across 18+ states 🎉Trusted by public health bodies and private sector employers 🎊 All without raising a single rupee from VCs ⸻ 📊 While others burn ₹50 crore to find PMF, Clinics on Cloud built a ₹100 crore business by solving actual health gaps — not investor expectations. ⸻ 💡 Here’s the truth: India doesn’t need 100 more healthtech apps. It needs 10 companies that actually deliver healthcare. Raising funding is easy. Building a purpose-driven, profitable, scalable healthcare company is not. And that’s exactly why Clinics on Cloud is the company to watch. #healthtech #startups #digitalhealth #vcfunding #bootstrapped #clinicsoncloud #impactdriven #AIinhealthcare #ruralhealthcare #clinicaloutcomes #founders Clinics On Cloud Abhay Agarwal

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I was honoured to speak at the World Health Summit Regional Meeting 2025 (New Delhi) on “Scaling Access to AI-Powered Diagnostics for Improved Health Equity with a focus on practical implementation, challenges, and real-world impact.” What I shared on stage : -The MedMitra origin story We started with one nagging observation: brilliant doctors were losing hours each day to clerical work. MedMitra’s AI now does the heavy lifting—instantly summarising patient histories, transcribing consultations, and suggesting evidence-backed differentials and treatment plans. Doctors reclaim their focus; patients get faster, clearer answers. -When no doctor is around. In primary-health centres without specialists, our triage agent and WhatsApp-based lab-report interpreter flag red-alerts and route them to remote experts. AI becomes the first line of defence, not a luxury add-on. Pilot vs. real world. Pilot sites showed a 40 % cut in OPD/IPD time and 97 % accuracy in AI insights. Fast-forward to full roll-outs across hospitals, and we’re holding steady at 38–42 % time savings and 95–98 % accuracy—even with power outages, patchy data, and the glorious unpredictability of real life. Roadblocks & fixes. Interoperability headaches? We wrote feather-weight FHIR adapters so legacy HIMS systems could talk to us without ripping anything out. Clinician scepticism? Every AI suggestion comes with a “why,” not just a score, so trust climbs rapidly. Rural bandwidth? We built an edge-deployable pack that syncs data when signal returns—AI shouldn’t vanish when 4G does. A huge shout out to my fellow panelists Dr Sanjay Agarwal, Dr. Mona Duggal, Anusha Purushotham, Vikalp Sahni, Dr Amit Kharat, our distinguished chair Soumya Swaminathan and Anjali Agrawal for being a great moderator. More to come about how MedMitra AI made an impact at the summit! #AI #Healthcare #Healthtech #WHS

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Public-Private Partnerships in Healthcare: PM Narendra Modi’s Collaborative Approach PM Narendra Modi has been instrumental in building public-private partnerships within India’s healthcare sector, recognizing that collaboration between the public and private sectors is key to transforming the healthcare system. These partnerships have paved the way for improving healthcare infrastructure, enhancing service delivery, and ensuring better access to healthcare across the country. By combining the resources and expertise of both sectors, India has been able to accelerate the construction of modern hospitals, expand medical services and introduce innovative healthcare solutions at scale. A great example of this is the establishment of specialized medical institutions like the Shri Babulal Roopchand Shah Mahavir Cancer Hospital in Surat, Gujarat, which was inaugurated with private sector involvement. The government has also supported these partnerships through initiatives like the National Health Mission, which incentivizes private healthcare providers to partner with state governments to improve service delivery in rural and underserved areas. With these innovative public-private collaborations, Prime Minister Modi is building a more inclusive, efficient, and accessible healthcare system, which will continue to serve India’s diverse population well into the future.

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💰 Fertility care startup Arva Health has raised $1 million in pre-seed funding to launch a network of tech-enabled fertility clinics across India. The round was led by All In Capital, with participation from iSeed, Bharath Founders Fund, and Galaxy. Founded by Dipalie Bajaj and Nidhi Panchmal, Arva Health aims to address the fragmented, expensive, and stigmatized nature of fertility care in India by integrating expert medical care, diagnostics, and personalized support under one roof. The company’s first flagship clinic in Whitefield, Bangalore, will provide fertility testing, consultations, egg freezing, and IVF in a modern, judgment-free setting. 🇮🇳 💬 "Fertility care needs a rebrand. Too often, people feel lost, rushed, or judged in this process. We are building clinics that put patients first—where they feel heard, supported, and empowered every step of the way. Whether they are exploring their options, preserving their fertility, or ready to start a family, Arva is a place they can trust."Nidhi Panchmal, co-founder of Arva Health. #femtech #womenshealth #womenshealthinnovation #healthcare #healthtech #digitalhealth #fertility #reproductivehealth #eggfreezing #menshealth #malefertility #virtualcare #hybridcare

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