India’s Preventive Healthcare Sector To Touch $197 Bn By 2025: Report
According to a report released by strategy consulting firm Redseer Strategy Consultants in collaboration with Chiratae Ventures and Amazon Web Services, India’s preventive healthcare sector, which includes fitness and wellness, foods and supplements, early diagnostics and health tracking among others, is projected to reach USD $197 Billion by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 22 per cent.
India has traditionally focused on curative care as opposed to preventive care. However, since the onset of the pandemic, preventive care has increased in importance across India. A survey conducted with over 1,000 individuals reveals that at least 40 per cent of the respondents were highly inclined towards preventive health. Another survey conducted with a group of over 300 Health-Conscious Individuals (HCIs) reveals that they actively track different aspects of their health such as lifestyle, physical wellness, and more, to maintain and prolong wellness.
The report revealed that these HCIs are familiar with health monitoring devices and apps and use them regularly to monitor their health. Further, the study revealed that these HCIs spend on an average between INR 4,000 and INR 10,000 on various preventive healthcare practices annually and are also willing to pay up to 50 per cent more in the future.
More than 40 preventive healthcare technology startups have raised approximately USD $1 Bn in funding over the last three years to tap the preventive health opportunity across segments such as nutrition management, condition management, lifestyle monitoring, health checkups, and mental and physical wellness.
"As per the report India is looking to effectively deliver quality healthcare to a billion people through rapidly evolving technology that can provide affordable, accessible and personalised healthcare. We have invested over $150M in healthcare companies in India, such as Cure.fit, Redcliffe, HealthifyMe, Smiles.ai, HealthPlix, Onco, and others, who are revolutionising care delivery in nutrition and wellness, cancer, genomics, and other critical areas,” said Sudhir Sethi, Founder, Chairman, Chiratae Ventures.
They are leveraging cloud computing to build and scale their applications, which generate, digitize and analyse vast amounts of health data using advanced technologies such as internet of things (IoT), data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). For instance, over 30 per cent of the top 40 funded preventive HealthTech startups leverage AI/ML for use cases such as medical image analysis, document extraction, chatbots, personalization, and health risk prediction. The rollout of Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) will further augment the availability of data and utilisation of these technologies.
The report also outlined that not only startups, but diversified corporates and healthcare businesses, are entering the preventive health space by partnering with startups or building their own programs and digital platforms.The Indian consumer is expected to benefit from the shift from curative to preventive, with the delivery of better health outcomes and lower healthcare costs
“Startups can unlock the potential of preventive healthcare in India by focusing on the 3A’s - Awareness, Accessibility, and Affordability for consumers. Creating more HCIs, tapping into existing ones and leveraging partnerships with corporates, providers, and insurers ways that can help move in this direction,” said Amitabh Kumar, Senior Manager, Redseer Strategy consultants.
