Source: IndianStartupNews
Varun Dubey, the previous Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at Ola, has started a new healthcare startup called Superhealth Hospitals Pvt Ltd. The Bengaluru-based company plans to develop a chain of small hospitals throughout India. The startup is currently in the process of fundraising, and is in talks to raise approximately ₹12–13 crore in seed funding from Sparrow Capital, a prominent venture capital firm focused on funding early-stage ventures, according to sources reported by IndianStartupNews
Dubey is familiar with the healthcare market, as he previously worked with Practo, India’s leading digital health platform, and after Practo, he was the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) at Apollo Hospitals, one of India’s biggest hospital chains. The inspiration for creating the hospitals came from the aforementioned roles, and his vision is for hospitals that can be smaller and cost-effective for more access.
He is thinking away from building expensive, and large, hospitals. Superhealth will look at building smaller, affordable buildings that can offer what is called necessary medical services, especially in communities where big hospitals are less easily accessible.
On his LinkedIn profile, Dubey wrote, “Digging into why healthcare sucks so much and obsessing over how to fix it for patients and doctors because it seems like both are stuck in this horrible system,”
under the tag “Stealth Mode.”
indicates that the company is operating under the radar without publicity announcements at this time.
Getting Support from Healthcare Icons
Dubey is being supported with some well-known names from the world of healthcare including Dr. Alexander Kuruvilla Chief Strategy Officer Practo, and Manoj Kumar Gangasandra another former Practo senior executive, who also posted on linkedin “making healthcare better” in stealth mode. The founders’ board connections and introductions in the network space are expected to help Superhealth create a framework for rapid growth and execution.
The group of ex-Practo leaders that is commonly known as the “Practo mafia,” have a track record of creating successful health start-ups in India.
A Developing Trend.
Not only is Varun Dubey among them, but there are also previous executives in the healthcare start-up space. For instance Nirmal NR, the head of Zoomcar India has just started Preventify “building an AI-assisted primary care for small-town India, starting with Kerala.”.
What is Next?
If the funding deal with Sparrow Capital closes successfully, Superhealth plans to open its first hospitals in the near future. Likely, the company will kick off in Bengaluru and branch out to other cities and towns.
As India’s healthcare ecosystem garners more founders, it will be interesting to watch how Superhealth rises in a space with many established players and start ups.
