The two sectors where digitalisation was rare were education and healthcare. This has changed since COVID, where the sectors have gotten a boost of digitalisation. Now, these sectors are some of the most digitally advanced sectors of India. The Future Health Index 2021 India report claims, that 94% of health leaders want their hospitals to adopt technology and make their operations more efficient. By integrating smart technology, hospitals will be better at delivering desired outcomes.
To manage this, Ayu Health was launched. Ayu Health acquires speciality hospitals and rebrands them to create a network of hospitals. The startup was formed by Himesh Joshi, Arjit Gupta and Karan Gupta. They previously led Zefo, a used-goods platform that was acquired by Quickr for a whopping $30 million. They noticed that in India only 4-5% of hospitals were branded. The rest of the hospitals were good with their medical staff but lacked technological backing in insurance management, queue management and more.
They started their operations in Chandigarh in 2020 with hospitals with a capacity of between 70 to 150 beds. The partnered hospitals are run by the hospital and Ayu Health provides technological updates and supervision. Chandigarh was selected as they wanted to know whether a less tech-savvy place was able to cope up with digitalisation. After Chandigarh, they entered Bengaluru in 2021. They have so far created a network of 15+ hospitals. All hospitals partnered with Ayu Health are accredited by National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NABH).
They have raised $6.3 million in their Series A round by Singapore-based Vertex Ventures and Stellaris Venture Partners. Angel investors like Varun Alagh (of Mamaearth), Rajat Goel (of EyeQ) and Ashish Gupta also participated. Their end goal is to reach a 5000 be capacity in approximately 6 cities across India. They have set for themselves a deadline of December 2022. Will Ayu Health be able to digitalise the Indian health sector?