At BW Healthcare World's first edition of the Festival of Healthtech, experts from the industry discussed the key levers, challenges and opportunity that lies ahead for Indian startups

According to the figures from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, India had more than 65,000 startups overall (as of March 2022) and added over 1,300 tech businesses in the year 2022 alone. Further, the data showed that Indian startups raised USD 3.8 billion in the first quarter of 2023.

At BW Healthcare World's first edition of the Festival of Healthtech, experts from the industry discussed the key levers, challenges and opportunity that lies ahead for Indian startups in a panel discussion. 

“The biggest lever that played a part in standardising the structure in this industry was efficiency. It's all about people and also technology. Especially the fitness ecosystem could be made structured using systems and technology,” Rishabh Telang, Fitness Expert and Dream Chaser, Cure.Fit said while emphasising the human and technological integration in startups.

Despite an increase in startups from 452 in 2016 to 84,012 in 2022, the Indian startup ecosystem is still suffering a number of difficulties, according to the Economic Survey Report 2022-23. The difficulties include lack of money, difficulties with revenue production, and restricted access to helpful infrastructure. For startups, the regulatory atmosphere and tax frameworks have also presented challenges.

“The drive to make indigenous medical devices started after Covid. Today 80-85 per cent of medical devices come from outside. Around 10-15 per cent are made here in India. Medical devices in itself is very complex to understand. Gloves or syringes are both medical devices, on the other side MRI equipment is also a medical device. You cannot make one regulation for all to manage entire medical devices. Currently, medical devices are managed by the Cosmetic and Drug Act. There are long ways to go,” stated Sunil Khurana, MD, BPL Medical Technologies.

According to PwC's Startup Deals Tracker for 2022, early-stage funding increased by 12 per cent from calendar year (CY) 2021 to 2022, demonstrating that investors remained upbeat about the Indian start-up ecosystem despite the global recession. Additionally, it stated that the SaaS segment accounted for roughly 25 per cent of all funding operations in CY21 and saw a 20 per cent increase in funding values during CY22 compared to CY21.

“Startup India was initiated to enable some structure that was necessary to support the startup ecosystem. It requires a system where all the stakeholders are involved in it and also create it as a centre to create a business,’’ said Binil Mathew, Manager, Startup India.

The session was moderated by Sabhyata Verma, AVP at Startup India.