IIM-Ahmedabad’s Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) is calling for entries for Healthcare Accelerator, 2016
This article has been sponsored by Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE)
One of the largest sectors in India – both in terms of revenue and employment – healthcare is expected to grow to $280 billion by 2020, with a compounded annual growth rate of 16 per cent.
But, Asia's third-largest economy, India, spends only about 1 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on public health, compared to 3 per cent by China and 8.3 per cent by the United States. Despite rapid economic growth, especially in the past two decades, successive governments have failed to invest in health. It is, therefore, no surprise that India’s public health care system is patchy, with underfunded and overcrowded hospitals and clinics, and inadequate rural coverage. With the government’s low spending on healthcare, patients and their families bear the brunt, as evidenced by the country’s out-of-pocket (OOP) spending rate, one of the highest in the world.
Startups see an opportunity in this gap, and rightly so. Today, healthcare is witnessing quantum disruption, especially by means of digitisation of healthcare Healthcare is moving from hospitals and clinics to homes and communities. From smartphones to social media to sensors, new tools are empowering consumers with more information and control over their healthcare decisions. And, with this, healthcare startups are trying to tap into the$100-billion healthcare expenditure market of India while solving the crucial pain points in the space at the same time. They are trying to make healthcare more accessible, more affordable, and are changing the focus from curative to preventive.
Healthcare Accelerator 2016
Against this backdrop, IIM-Ahmedabad’s Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) is calling for entries for Healthcare Accelerator 2016, in partnership with The Dasra Girl Alliance. The three-month programme aims to accelerate, nurture, and invest in ‘innovative’ and ‘scalable’ early-stage startups in the healthcare space to bring about equitable access to healthcare in India.
Since its inception in 2002, CIIE has been a front-runner in fuelling innovation-driven entrepreneurship with healthcare as one of its core focus areas. But, it is for the first time that it has launched a healthcare-focussed accelerator. Speaking on the significance of this Accelerator, Vipul Patel, AVP (Investments) says, “Despite India’s growing economic prowess, our healthcare systems continue to suffer from significant inequity and inefficiencies. CIIE believes that innovative entrepreneurship models will play a key role in enabling affordable and accessible quality healthcare for all by focussing on healthcare technology, innovation, and commercialisation.”
CIIE, through its Healthcare Accelerator, aims to provide customised support to the selected startups based on their requirement - mainly in the areas of business development, product development, and patent awareness. Unlike many other accelerators, the Healthcare Accelerator does not focus on imparting theoretical knowledge. It is looking at facilitating customer linkages, beta prototype testing, mentoring by industry experts, and facilitating corporate connects by leveraging the networks of CIIE and its partners such as Dasra, InnoVen Capital, and C-CAMP.
Vinod Murali, Managing Director at InnoVen Capital," says, “The increasing use of technology to improve access and quality of medical support as well as white spaces in the pharma and healthcare delivery segment have resulted in numerous exciting startups with game changing ideas, some of whom have been funded by InnoVen recently. By partnering with IIM Ahmedabad’s CIIE for the Healthcare Accelerator, we hope to discover and support some exciting Startups through this platform.”
Deliberating on the collaboration with The Dasra Girl Alliance, (alliance between Dasra, USAID, Kiawah Trust, and the Piramal Foundation) the intent behind the collaboration and role they will play in the accelerator programme, Mr. Patel also says, “The Dasra Girl Alliance is working to achieve a systemic change by fostering innovation, improving outcomes and reaching scale to empower and address the healthcare needs of five million adolescent girls, mothers, and children in India. Their strong understanding and focus on supporting social enterprises works in tandem with CIIE's mission of providing improved accessibility and quality of healthcare services. Apart from this, given the needs of healthcare in India, it is pertinent to have developmental organisations as stakeholders.”
The Healthcare Accelerator 2016 is inviting entries from innovative and scalable healthcare startups in India who are working in the following domains.
Apply now
What’s in it for Startups?
The selected 10-12 startups, which will constitute the programme cohort, will be individually mentored by domain experts. They will leverage the wide networks of CIIE, Dasra, C-CAMP and InnoVen Capital for industry connects. Eminent mentors for the programme include Prof. Piyush Kumar Sinha, faculty member, Marketing and Retail, IIM Ahmedabad; Prof. K. V. Ramani, faculty member, Public System Groups, IIM Ahmedabad; Ketan R Patel, Chairman and Managing Director, Troikaa Pharmaceuticals Ltd; Chandrashekar K, Founder and CEO, Forus Health; and Taslimarif Saiyed, Director and COO, C-CAMP (Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms).
An intensive interactive session would kick-start the journey of these startups towards transforming their models into investment-worthy business propositions.
Startups will also get an opportunity to showcase their enterprises to a consortium of active investors on the Investor Demo Day as a part of the programme.
A maximum of two startups that meet CIIE’s criteria of ‘investible’ will be selected for a seed investment commitment of up to Rs 70 lakh, followed by mentoring and advisory support provided by CIIE’s portfolio team.
The Accelerator support doesn’t end after the three-month period. The Accelerator will continue to help grow the startups. The startups can also continue to avail the resources that the Accelerator and its allied community provide.
How the Accelerator brings value to startups
- Early-stage acceleration: Mentorship and small-scale funding to achieve initial technology/business model validation
- Market validation: Quick access to markets through vast network of CIIE, Dasra, Innoven, C-CAMP and programme mentors
- Business development: Acceleration of go-to-market processes and industry connects aiming to create mature companies ready for their next stage
- Additional funding: Access to investors through Demo Day