When Mudit Dandwate, a former racing-car engineer, nearly lost an uncle to undiagnosed sepsis in an Indian hospital, he set out to revolutionize patient monitoring in India, home to 1.4 billion people.
At the time, Dandwate was consulting for luxury sports car brands like McLaren. Using his experience with high-performance vehicles, he and a fellow engineer applied Formula 1-style sensors to health care, creating a system that monitors body micro-vibrations in non-intrusive ways to track health metrics in hospitals.
“We use sensors, analytics, and artificial intelligence to assess a car’s health,” Dandwate, 33, explained in an interview with Bloomberg News. “We adapted those same methods to create a sensor-based, contactless patient monitoring system.”
India’s hospitals, like many globally, face understaffing and overworked medical staff, resulting in delays that can lead to life-threatening complications.
Dandwate’s startup, Dozee, is one of many health-tech firms aiming to bridge these critical gaps in India’s health care infrastructure using AI and cutting-edge technologies.
Since 2022, investors—including TPG Capital and pharmaceutical giants like Novo Nordisk—have injected $3.7 billion into Indian health-related startups, according to data from Tracxn Technologies Ltd. This represents half of the $7.4 billion raised across the Asia Pacific region.
Bain & Co. predicts that India’s health care innovation market could be worth $60 billion by 2028, driven by pharma services and health-tech advancements.
Challenges Post-COVID
Despite this potential, over 170 Indian health-tech startups have gone bankrupt since 2023 as the world emerged from COVID-19 restrictions, according to Tracxn data. Many of those that survived have seen their valuations drop.
Now, most startups focus on expanding both within India and into more lucrative overseas markets to scale operations and eventually turn profitable.
The pandemic spurred the rise of health-tech startups, many of which sought to replace in-person care with digital services, such as online pharmacy PharmEasy. However, as valuations drop, investors are now gravitating toward companies that adopt a hybrid model to fill gaps in India’s health infrastructure.
Co-founded by Dandwate in Bangalore in 2015, Dozee is valued at around $150 million. The company uses two sensor sheets placed under mattresses as an early warning system to monitor cardiac, respiratory, sleep, and other vital signs.
The sensors capture data every second with 98% accuracy, reducing hospital staff workload while improving real-time patient monitoring.
Dozee charges over half a million rupees ($5,947) for integrating its smart beds into hospital administrative systems. The technology is already used in over 16,000 beds in about 250 Indian hospitals and another 55 in the U.S.
Having raised $35 million, Dozee plans an additional funding round in six months to finance its expansion into the U.S., according to Dandwate.
Addressing Scarcity
India has just 7.3 physicians per 10,000 people, compared to the global average of 17.2, with rural areas facing an 80% shortage of specialists, according to the World Health Organization.
Carl Byers, a partner at F-Prime Capital, noted, “It’s a global issue to have a provider shortage, but it’s especially acute in India, particularly in tier-two and tier-three cities.”
Dhruv Joshi and Dileep Raman, two intensive-care specialists formerly from Cleveland Clinic in the U.S., established Cloudphysician to monitor ICU patients remotely across India. Their team of about 120 doctors and nurses works out of Bangalore, supporting hospitals in 23 Indian states, from major cities to smaller towns.
Cloudphysician’s technology allows hospitals like Paramount Hospital, a 40-bed facility in northern Mumbai, to provide intensive care despite lacking full-time critical-care specialists.
Paramount’s ICU stay averages have dropped from five days to three since it began working with Cloudphysician, according to owner Utkarsh Angachekar.
A Growing Market
The combination of India’s infrastructure gap and rapidly growing economy creates a fertile ground for health-tech innovation.
Bengaluru-based Qure.ai, which raised $65 million from investors like Merck & Co.’s global health innovation fund, uses AI for early diagnosis of strokes and lung cancer. Meanwhile, Asia Healthcare Holdings, backed by TPG, has treated over 1,300 babies through remote neonatal ICUs in smaller towns.
As these startups seek profitability, technology remains the driving force. “Technology allows us to serve customers at prices they can afford while ensuring better medical outcomes,” said Mohit Bhatnagar, managing director of Peak XV Partners. The venture firm has supported at least 14 Indian health-tech startups.
Global Expansion and Profitability
With India’s middle class expanding and new internet users fueling growth, many founders are confident that their customer base will grow, helping them break even in the long term. Cloudphysician and Dozee are also eyeing international markets, including the U.S. and the Middle East, to boost profit margins while keeping prices low in India.
“You build such strong technology that you can compete globally,” said Ashwin Raguraman, co-founder of Bharat Innovation Fund.
