After consolidating its position in its home region of Delhi/NCR, home healthcare provider Critical Care Unified has expanded to Mumbai. The company, which has been profitable from the first quarter, is also in advanced talks for funding.
Speaking to BusinessLine , Rajiv Mathur, Founder, said, “We have been operating in Delhi-NCR for about 16 months now and has covered about 600 patients. Now, as per plan, we have kicked off operations to Mumbai, which is a very big market. We have done a lot of research on this market (Mumbai).”
Home healthcare market
The home healthcare industry in India, till now, consisted largely of unorganised players. However, initiatives by hospitals and a slew of start-ups are changing the demographics of this lucrative industry.
Industry figures put the market at about $3.2 billion; it is expected to grow to over $6 billion by 2020.
In line with these estimates, Critical Care Unified has been charting up strong growth figures. “We are growing at about 150 per cent,” Mathur said, though he did not share the absolute figure.
Since Critical Care has been profitable from the very beginning, funds brought in by the promoters were enough to run the show. However, now with expansion in full swing, the company is talking to some Venture Capital funds, both domestic and international, and certain Family Offices in India.
“In the next three-four months, we will be closing the funding deal of ₹30-40 crore,” said Mathur.
In the Delhi-NCR, Critical Care has 380+ staff members. The Mumbai operations are being spearheaded by a team of four now. “We will be ramping it up to about 120 in a year,” said Mathur.
Mathur said the company will expand to three more big geographies in India and to one international geography in the next 12 months.
Technology, the core
Through tie-ups with hospitals and doctors, patients come to Critical Care Unified. It then sets up critical care (ICU, long-term ventilation support and tracheostomy care) type environment for the patient in the comfort of his/her home.
Technology is at the core of this operation, where the patient’s condition is monitored by the caregivers and information relayed to doctors, who provide advice — all on 24x7 basis, through the use of dedicated apps and other technologies. Even when the patient has to be moved to hospital in case of an emergency and brought back home after the emergency is tackled, technology runs the logistics.