Dheeraj Jain is the Founder of Redcliffe Life Diagnostics and Crysta IVF. Redcliffe Labs is an accredited advanced diagnostic laboratory that aims at providing top-notch consistent and accurate laboratory services with modern technology and equipment all-inclusive of logistics management. 

About Redcliffe Life Diagnostics

Dheeraj begins, “Back in 2018, my sister-in-law got diagnosed with breast cancer and my wife’s side of the family had a similar thing. This made us wonder why genetic testing which is a core fundamental to finding treatment from ecology, isn’t mainstream. This made me think, while I am an investor in so many companies why not get into one thing that I can carry on forward.”

“This was the starting point to put together a super specialised lab in Delhi. Along with working with key opinion leaders towards building new research in the diagnostics space. From cancer, rare diseases to reproductive health. That was our forte for 2 and a half years. We worked hard and created 15 research publications and novel tests. Then we were able to go out into the market and really convince the key people to work with us.”

“We built a small brand for us as a specialised space. Then the Covid pandemic broke out. That was the time we were wondering what would be the next thing in healthcare. As the pandemic made healthcare a topic of conversation in every household. People started doing tests at home. We found this phenomenon very unusual. As previously people went to a centre to give their blood samples. We realised that if we could provide routine tests where the samples were collected from home and by building lab facilities nearby. And by building this system for a pan-India approach, this would be very different.”

“Also if we could skill this up, then the clear strength would be that you could reach any consumer in less than 30 mins. Just like you get your food in 30 minutes, you could also get your testing done. So we wanted to create a Zomato-Swiggy mode of collection instead of food delivery. Along with an Amazon-style real-time tracking feature. By building a huge tech around this, it would help us build a huge test portfolio.”

“Also building this up with the local labs makes us the first pan-India lab chain with both genetic super routine at home and at the centres. If we could build this then it would be the largest healthcare venture. With this one can collect a lot of data. After having this data we can go back to the consumers and talk about their diseases and can reverse certain diseases organically.” 

“So this doesn’t remain a lab business but becomes a healthcare business. Where there is a more personalised touch. From doing a personalised medicine by genetics to having it expand into a routine in a span of 1 and a half years is a complete success.”

“Along with this we also started doing an IVF business. By partnering with leading doctors and clinics. This venture is named Crysta IVF. All this has been accomplished in 1 and a half year's time.”

Hospital and Patients’ network

Dheeraj says, “We have crossed 1 million families. So more than 10 lakh families have tested with Redcliffe Labs portfolio. The portfolio ranges from basic (biochemistry glucose) to genetics along with lifestyle diseases and Smart Plus Full Body Checkup. The latter checks all the possible vitals and which is a product we would like to bring forward the most.”

“4 out of 5 families in India have never tested. So 80% of the population is still undiagnosed. In the 10 lakh families we have tested, half of them come from tier 2 and tier 3 cities. This signals that deep India is still not penetrated by large chains. And we decided that we want to build and scale our brand as much as we are doing it in Delhi and Mumbai, to tier 2 cities as well. Right after April and May, we are going to go into tier 3 cities.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised when you go to the hills in your holiday and would encounter us there with our local lab collection centre. In a day we are collecting from around 5000 homes. From here we are processing around 5 lakh tests a day. We are trying to scale this to 50,000 tests a day and then to 50 lakh tests a day. This is the scale where no one has reached.”

“We are the market leader in the space of home collection. All this has been possible because the consumer’s minds have changed. They no longer hold the belief that testing must be done at a traditional lab. We are also able to give price benefits to the consumer. They don’t need to pay three times more than they deserve to pay. We are also seeing 30% repeat every four months for these consumers.”

Redcliffe’s USP

Dheeraj explains, “Healthians’ work in the last 6-7 years is quite commendable. Deepak and Nishant have built Healthians tremendously. We are learning the home collection business from them. What Healthians doesn’t have that Redcliffe does is the large portfolio. We have around 35,000 tests. Our forte is specialised and super-specialised. Today, one of the largest research in breast cancer for gene expression that connects the tumour aggression level to gene variants is where Redcliffe participated and sponsored.”

“We are very research focus. We don’t take things for granted. We scientifically find out. So our strength lies in the research and clinical side. In terms of diagnostics we sometimes even beat the larger companies of India. We have many local labs in Indore, Patna, Guwahati and Bhubaneswar. We have a big offline presence with around 500 collection centres. Which will reach to 2000 collection centres at the end of the year.”

“We also have the ability to go and talk to consumers and find out about more diseases. So we are looking at disease profiling, which is different from most of the profiling. We are giving tests that were never discussed or never approached. And we work with doctors that do a lot of research in the reproductive health and cancer space. So we are not only a diagnostics venture but are a full-fledged health company. Today we are at a 30 crore monthly revenue business and that puts us in the top 5 diagnostic companies of India.”

Redcliffe’s Funding

Dheeraj mentions, “We are in the middle of closing a fundraiser, which will be announced soon. We have large institutional support coming up. We have core values and are driven by institutional processes. The investors too are very institutional in their approach. So there is no one-man show but it is driven by larger goals and a board.” 

“We have raised more than 10 million and have been in a continuous fundraising process. We try not to make too much noise on funding but make noise on the goals we are working on. Sometimes we make noise on achievements. Funding gives us more responsibility than ever before. Therefore our investors also believe to market the achievements more than anything else.”

Redcliffe’s Goals

Dheeraj says, “Our goal is to touch 15,000 families with testing at home for every single day. We want 2000 collection centres operating pan-India. We want a 10,000 doctor network with whom we can talk about our tests and research. We are also going to launch some other products and services. which are yet to be announced. These will reverse disease organically. We are also working on algorithms and AI technology. The goal is to bring these technologies to consumers. Our goal is the same as the Prime Minister - Swachh and Swasth Bharat. In the latter, we take the responsibility.”

“We see how the family with young and old members can change lifestyle habits to make them healthier. This can be done by testing them and advising them. We also have a radiology business named Redcliffe Imaging. We want to scale it up. There the goal is to touch monthly 100 crores in revenue. So we have our own centres coming up and will also partner up with others. We want to be in the top 3 of the radiology business by the end of this year. Two years down the line we want to be the market leader.”

Advice for budding Entrepreneurs 

Dheeraj advises, “Think about a large problem that you want to solve. Doesn’t matter if someone else is solving it too. You can solve it in a very different way or you can solve it more efficiently. My kinda thing is to look at the large market size. Doing niche things will not gain investors’ attention. That comes by solving big market size problems.”

“Funding is a validation for sure but it shouldn’t bother you. It would come if you are doing the right thing. Third thing is that your team is the most important. Find those stars with whom you can work. Even if you have to give away your equity, get those co-founders on board. Build a super solid team. Financial outcomes are always good, either big or small.”

“All boils down to execution. There is so much to learn from the ecosystem, so be part of the ecosystem. The Indian startup ecosystem is very different from what it used to be. Post-covid the opportunities are immense here. There are great times ahead as well.” 

(Edited by Priyal Shah)