‘There is a tremendous potential for healthcare startups not just in India but also rest of the world’

According to NASSCOM Startup Ecosystem Report 2015, India serves as the fastest growing startup-base worldwide and stands third in technology-driven product startups. In an interview with Safir Adeni, President, TIE-Hyderabad, Raelene Kambli seeks to understand the opportunities for Indian healthcare start-ups

What improvement do you see in the start-up ecosystem in India as compared to the US or Israel?

The startup ecosystem in India is growing at a much faster pace and has much broader diversity.

We are seeing dual trend where on one hand, a lot of investors are pouring in funds on Indian start-ups and on the other, there are some investors such as Tiger Global, Soft Bank and many more taking a step behind. Can you explain this trend?

Yes, India is still the hottest market for startup investment. However, due to irrational exuberance of some investors in the last two years, there has also been over investment in a few perceived unicorns.When that doesn’t materialise it causes a negative reaction leading to slowdown. However, it is a problem for selective startup sectors and not a universal one.

How would you perceive entry barriers with healthcare v/s non-healthcare start-ups?

It depends on whether the startups are in Healthcare IT , e-commerce or service sectors or in hardware products, device driven innovations including pharma and biotech. The entry barriers are not healthcare-sector specific. These are dependent on the products and business model of the startup.

You say that entry barriers are based on products and business models. Can you throw some light on this?

In case of products, primarily hardware and biotech devices and instrumentation that involves IP has higher barrier to entry. Also, business models that cannot be replicated by others due to unique capabilities like scale, distribution or core medical expertise also have higher entry barriers.

What scope do you see for healthcare startups in India?

There is a tremendous potential for healthcare startups since the market for most of them is not just India (which itself is a large market) but also rest of the world.

Which areas of healthcare do you see a maximum number of start-ups coming up?

There is lot of activity in Healthcare IT and automation but the biotech space even though it needs longer incubation has more promise.

What is your expectation from the new policy framework for start-ups in India?

We hope that the government will make it easy to do startups in India, easy to start, easy to close and simplify the regulatory filing requirements and incentivise startup investors as opposed to penalising them.

What is TIE’s role in promoting and bettering the start-up ecosystem in India?

TiE is the world’s largest organisation of entrepreneurs fostering innovation and promoting startups. We focus on providing thought leadership, mentoring, investment, incubation and networking to the entire range of entrepreneurs from youth, to budding to growing and scaling startups. We are also the most diverse industry and business organisation spanning over 15 sectors in India and are now keenly involved in policy development at the national as well as state levels.