Indian healthtech industry to touch $9-12 bn by 2025: Redseer

India’s e-health space comprising online pharmacy, consultations and diagnostics grew by 51 per cent on a year-on-year (YoY) basis in 2021 driven by reduced customer acquisition, same day delivery and cross-selling, a report by consulting firm RedSeer stated.

The industry is poised to touch $9-12 billion gross merchandise value (GMV) by 2025 and $40 billion GMV by 2040, indicating the existence of a huge market opportunity for the players in the segment. GMV is a term used in online retailing to indicate a total sale monetary-value for merchandise sold through a particular marketplace over a certain time frame.

The healthtech industry is currently led by palyers like Pharmeasy, Reliance-backed Netmeds, Tata group-backed 1mg, Medlife, mfine, and MeddiBuddy, among others. The Redseer report stated that a 47 per cent increase in Net Promoter Score (NPS) in 2021 suggested that the customers are now more likely to recommend the eHealth platforms to their friends or relatives.

 The report further stated that India’s eHealth sector witnessed reduced Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), another indicator that the sector is set to grow organically by leaps and bounds, with better profitability. Same-day deliveries and cross-selling further characterise the sector’s performance. Going ahead, players could choose distinct growth paths as there are multiple areas with high potential, RedSeer pointed out.

E-pharma, meanwhile, dominated the e-health sector, even before COVID. The deep-discounting in the e-pharma vertical worked as a catalyst to the COVID-induced growth with the analysts forecasting a sustainable growth for the industry overall.

“It’s been two years since the COVID-induced pandemic, yet it looks like e-health is here to stay: the e-health sector continues to create delights, indicating that it could be the new normal for our healthcare industry," the report argued.

“We notice a huge headroom ahead for growth indicated by the global benchmarks, wherein healthtech players are already ahead of the traditional ones. India’s healthtech sector is on an exciting journey of disruption and continues to offer immense value proposition to consumers and businesses alike.  All this could potentially accelerate the e-health sector to reach $9-12 billion GMV by 2025 and ~$40 billion GMV by 2030, with promising avenues to enhance profitability,” said Kushal Bhatnagar, Engagement Manager, RedSeer.

The disruption by technology in a conventionally burdened healthcare industry of India has opened up newer channels of access to various facilities. Restricted access to healthcare, large burden of healthcare expenses, and quality concerns with medicines, diagnostic labs and overall infrastructure are the main issues that the Indian healthcare system is struggling with. From providing diagnostic tests and medication to patients, to serving as enablers of surgeries, healthtech platforms are becoming the go-to solution for consumers, the report further argued.