Business Consultant ... • 22d
A once-promising Indian health-tech startup backed by marquee investors has shut down — and the story behind it offers sobering lessons for founders and investors eyeing India’s healthcare market. Back in 2020, an investor placed capital into Onco, a health-tech platform that aimed to aggregate cancer hospitals across India. The concept was bold: patients could browse hospitals and treatment options online, consult with doctors virtually, and choose where to get treated — all through a single app or website. With over $7 million in funding from firms like Accel and Chiratae, and a strong digital brand drawing 25,000+ monthly visitors and 1,000+ organic cancer patient leads, Onco seemed poised for scale. But things didn’t pan out. According to the investor, the bet was that hospitals would see value in aligning with a brand that could drive digital patient acquisition at scale. That assumption proved costly. Here are three hard-earned lessons from the fallout: 1. Aggregating hospitals in India is a power imbalance you can’t win. Hospitals hold all the cards. They delay payments, sidestep agreements, and extract every possible margin. If you're building a business that relies on their cooperation, you're effectively at their mercy — with zero pricing power and ballooning compliance costs. 2. Digital-first sounds sexy — but the numbers don’t work. Online-only healthcare plays well in investor decks, but in the Indian market, users don’t pay enough to sustain it. Digital might drive leads, but it doesn’t drive revenue. The ARPU (average revenue per user) is too low to cover operational costs. The economics break fast. 3. Offline infrastructure isn’t optional — and it burns cash. Indian patients still prefer walking into a physical center and speaking to a doctor face-to-face. That means building brick-and-mortar presence, which is brutally capital-intensive. Each center takes 1–2 years just to break even. If you can’t bankroll that kind of expansion, you stall. The takeaway? If you're building an aggregator-only business in Indian healthcare — stop and reassess. Without control over margins, infrastructure, or patient trust, you're just a middleman with no leverage and no way to win. In markets like this, that’s not just a bad bet — it’s business suicide.
Hey I am on Medial • 2m
We're Building the Future of Healthcare IT .. And We Need the Right Partners to Join Us As a team of passionate software developers, we’ve successfully built scalable solutions for various industries. Now, we are on a mission to revolutionize health
See MoreBecome a millionaire... • 3m
India’s AI Healthcare Revolution: How Doctors, Hospitals, MedTech, and Pharma Are Leading the future of digital Helth. 1. AI Revolution in Healthcare: India is leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to transform healthcare delivery. AI-powered tool
See MoreAspiring Entrepreneu... • 5m
Bringing Digital Health Records to Tier 2/3 Cities! 🚀 Patients lose reports. Doctors lack past records. Hospitals struggle with paperwork. We’re building a Digital Health Locker where: ✅ Reports auto-sync from hospitals & labs – No manual uploads.
See MoreFinance Geek | Conte... • 9m
The Future of Healthcare in India India's healthcare sector is undergoing a significant transformation, driven by technological advancements, increasing healthcare awareness, and government initiatives. The country's large population and growing midd
See MoreAi enthusist who mak... • 1m
What's your thoughts on this? We're building a Smart HMIS (Hospital Management Information System) specially designed for second- and third-tier hospitals in India. Unlike traditional systems, ours is a full digital ecosystem covering patient, docto
See MoreAspiring Entrepreneu... • 10d
Hey! I'm currently doing my 6-month physiotherapy internship and actively seeking opportunities with AI healthcare startups. What I'm looking for: - Opportunities with AI healthcare startups across all domains - Roles where I can contribute my cli
See MoreInnovating myself • 10m
What are the biggest challenges in healthcare that a tech enthusiast could help solve? From AI-powered diagnostics to improving patient care through automation—let's brainstorm how technology can transform the future of healthcare! 💡 #HealthTech #In
See MoreHey I am on Medial • 1y
Hello everyone, I am a Doctor and planning to do a healthcare startup which focuses on Improving the quality of healthcare provided to patients in terms of diagnosis and treatment. As a patient can you provide areas which needs to be improved in our
See MoreDownload the medial app to read full posts, comements and news.