Funding rural healthcare: Elevar Equity invests Rs 50 cr in e-clinics start-up CureBay

Healthtech start-up CureBay has raised Rs 50 crore (approx. $6.12 million) in a Series A round led by Elevar Equity to launch 100 e-clinics in the next 12 months. The Bhubaneshwar-based health tech platform will deploy the capital towards acquiring talent, expanding to new locations, and strengthening its tech-led healthcare delivery model. 

At present, CureBay operates 15 e-clinics in remote districts and villages of Odisha, and has helped over 10,000 patients in medically underserved areas. This is the start-up’s first institutional fundraise, according to Tracxn.

Priyadarshi Mohapatra, Founder & CEO, CureBay, said, “We intend to empower the healthcare system and make it accessible to patients who lack information and proper medical resources. Our hybrid model helps in overcoming the challenges of skewed patient-provider ratios and the concentration of providers in a few urban pockets. We want to thank Elevar Equity for its trust in our mission to provide the Right to Health for every citizen even in the remotest locations of India.”

Founded in 2021 by Priyadarshi, Shobhan Mahapatra, and Sanjay Swain, CureBay connects patients in underserved markets to last-mile healthcare providers. Its trained healthcare workers at the e-clinics assist walk-in patients and enable video consultations with city-based doctors. Patients can also avail a network of certified partner labs as well as hospitals for specialized treatment and medicine deliveries. On the other side, the platform’s tech allows doctors to access detailed and personalized patient records, thus improving diagnosis and the quality of healthcare provided. 

“We have long held the view that rural healthcare platforms need to be custom-designed for this market. CureBay's blended distribution model with assisted tech is well-positioned to address a massive gap - millions of customers are eager to pay for quality healthcare in medically underserved areas,” Jyotsna Krishnan, Managing Partner, Elevar Equity, stated.

In the last couple of years, especially since the pandemic, VCs have taken great interest in India’s 3,000-odd healthtech start-ups, which raised a record $1.9 billion in 2021, according to a report by Dealroom. This makes India the fourth largest healthtech market in the world, only behind the US, China, and the UK.

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