GrowthEnabler India, an advisory services company, is working to transform the growth potential of start- ups in the med-technology space. The company is developing a GrowthEnabler Personalized Intelligence Interface (GE-PII) platform for start-ups to garner visibility, market access and grab new business opportunities.

“India needs an ecosystem for start-ups to scale-up. This is where GE-PII, to be launched by September end, will enable new entrant companies to commercialize innovation. An emerging opportunity in med-tech is artificial intelligence. There are a couple disruptive technologies but the need of the hour is that early stage companies have to interact and collaborate, Rajeev Banduni, co-founder & CEO, GrowthEnabler India told Pharmabiz.
 
“Only technology can facilitate knowledge sharing leading to cross pollination of concepts,” said Aftab Malhotra, chief growth officer and co-founder, GrowthEnabler India.

Providing an overview of the med-technology sector, Banduni stated that in 2015 funding value was $27 billion for 2,531 deals. The year-on-year funding growth was 17.19 per cent and Q4 of 2015 registered the highest deals. In Q1 2016, there were 623 deals valued at $6.26 billion.
 
Sharing the percentage of med-tech deals, he said that seed/angle funding contributed 27.14 per cent, followed by Series A with 29.54 per cent, Series B:19.9 per cent, Series C 11.79 per cent, Series D :6.48 per cent and Series E:5.15 per cent. The largest funds came in through Series E at $36.64 million.
 
The funding trend in 2014 and 2015 indicated that over 90 per cent was for 7 industries. Biotechnology which topped with 1,531 deals followed by medical devices & equipment with 1,725 deals after which it was medical facilities, drug, development, pharma, drug discovery and drug manufacturing. There are 153 unicorn companies valued at over $1 billion, of which 11 are in healthcare. Out of these, 7 are in the US, two 2 each in China and UK. “This clearly indicates that disruptive innovation is here to stay in med-technology,” he said.
 
US attracts around one-third of total funding as Google, IBM and Apple are slating huge investments in healthcare, followed by Japan, Germany and China. “India’s contribution in med-tech is miniscule despite a promising start-up scenario. Going forward, artificial intelligence is expected to spur med tech growth. The government’s Start-Up India, Make in India initiatives and enabling process of ease of doing business will favour emergence of novel med-tech concepts from here,” noted Banduni.
 
“Job creation is a big challenge for India. This is where start-ups are vital for employment generation and to sustain productivity. The existing well-known industries need to collaborate with start-ups and colleges to create the specific pool of talent,” said Banduni.
 
“Since med tech start-ups are known for long gestation, we can provide right strategy, put in place processes and speed-up scale-up. This is where the GE-PII platform will propel startups on the maturity curve faster, said Malhotra.