HealthTech sector funding plummeted by 55% in India

Funding for health technology companies fell 55 per cent to $1.4 billion in 2022, from to $3.2 billion in 2021 amid the ongoing funding winter in the Indian start-up ecosystem, said a recent report.

This drop is mostly due to a massive 75 per cent dip in late-stage investments, which went from $2.4 billion in 2021 to $606 million in 2022, according to the report by Tracxn, a market intelligence platform.

Despite the decline, 2022 was still the second-highest funded year in the past decade, after 2021. The pandemic, the report says, has made people more aware of the importance of health, which led to the greater use of digital health services and drove growth in this space.

While investor interest in the HealthTech sector skyrocketed in the pandemic period, the space started experiencing a declining trend in funding from Q4 of 2021. Due to the funding winter, current macroeconomic conditions, and rising interest rates, investors across the globe have become more cautious in spending their money. This trend has been observed in the HealthTech sector as well.

Online pharmacy Tata 1mg was the only Indian HealthTech company to become a unicorn in 2022. The company raised $40.8 million in a round led by Tata Digital, with participation from KWE Beteiligungen AG, HBM Healthcare Investments and others. This raised the company’s valuation to $1.3 billion, making it a unicorn.

Only two funding rounds valued over $100 million took place in 2022, compared to 10 during the previous year. Digital healthcare platform MediBuddy raised $125 million in a Series C funding round from Quadria Capital, Lightrock India and others. Consumer nutrition platform HealthKart was the other who raised $135 million in a Series H round from Temasek, A91 Partners and others.
Despite this downturn, higher digital adoption and favourable government policies are expected to increase the activity in this space. Advancement in technologies like AI, robotics, cloud computing, data analytics, and IoT are also expected to improve the Indian HealthTech sector. Business Standard