T-Hub incubatee Life Circle raises $150,000 from Europe-based healthcare service provider, GROUPE SOS
Life Circle Health Services, a Hyderabad-based home nursing and professional care giving service provider has raised $150,000 from GROUPE SOS, a European senior healthcare service provider.
The fresh round of funds will help Life Circle to expand its services in Hyderabad and Delhi-NCR. GROUPE SOS is not just providing the funds, but will also support Life Circle with technical know how.
Life Circle provides subscription-based professional care giving and home nursing services to chronically ill and bed-ridden seniors in India. Founded in September 2013 by Priya Anant, Anant Kumar and Atul Kumar, the startup has a team of 75 caregivers and nurses who provide nursing care services (vitals, injection and dressing).
Anant Kumar, Co-founder and CEO, Life Circle, said, "We have provided more than 150,000 hours of professional caregiving services so far. We differentiate our services by providing trained and verified caregivers, creating a seamless continuum of care, providing work related training and psychological counselling to caregivers.”
T-Hub incubatee Life Circle serves 60 customers everyday with eight hours of services allowing customers to avail services on hourly and daily basis. It follows a subscription-based revenue model which starts from Rs 200 to 600 per day depending on the nature of the services. The startup is growing by 105 percent month on month, according to the founders. By 2020, Life Circle aims to be in 20 cities in India.
Purpose of investment
Jean-Marc Borello, Founder and President, GROUPE SOS said, “We are very excited about joining a great Indian enterprise to develop home nursing services in India. GROUPE SOS has more than 30 years of experience in France where elder care health services are among the best in the world. Transferring both our daily experience in managing teams dedicated to home nursing and our training courses for caregivers will benefit Indian seniors.”
With an annual turnover of $ 900 million and 14,000 employees, GROUPE SOS provides innovative solutions to fight against poverty and social exclusion in five sectors: Youth, Employment, Solidarity, Health and Seniors. It operates mobile nursing units in France providing home nursing and care giving services to seniors.
Market Opportunity
According to IBEF, the healthcare market in India is expected to touch $280 billion by 2020, clocking a CAGR of 22.9 percent. Of the overall market, the healthcare delivery sub-segment accounts for 65 percent.
Of the 103 million senior citizens in India, 36 percent of urban seniors above 60 are immobile and families are the primary care givers.
However, India is a fragmented market in terms of informal nursing service providers (untrained staff with highly priced services). With improvement in economic condition and burgeoning middle class, people have come forward to pay for professional care services.
Home healthcare space has seen the entry of multiple startups in the last few years. Bengaluru-based Portea Medical is among the larger operators with a team of over 3,500 people. It operates across India and Malaysia and clocks over 60,000 visits to patients’ homes each month.
Last year, it raised $37.5 million in a Series B round led by Accel Partners, International Finance Corporation (IFC), Qualcomm Ventures and Ventureast.
Other players include GoodHands, Tribeca Care, Epoch Elder Care and Pramati Care. Pramati raised $200,000 in pre-Series A round earlier this year. It offers services like assistive care, adult nursing care, and rehabilitation at the home of the patient.
