Healthcare startups go to China, India & Singapore to flourish
08-May-16, Deal Street Asia
Venture funding in healthcare globally reached a record $4.5 billion in 302 deals in 2015, a four fold increase since 2011. The pace seems slower when compared with the levels seen in 2014, which was about four per cent lower.
Image: Deal Street Asia
Funding is likely to continue at a higher rate, says the Powering the Future of Healthcare in Asia Pacific report.
The main reason for optimism is that a new generation of healthcare startups, focussing on the consumer market, has been gaining rapid ground across India and Southeast Asia.
The last three years have seen a surge in healthtech start-ups in the Asia Pacific region, driven among others by a growing middle class affluence and health awareness, the need for chronic disease management, and the growing demand for senior healthcare products and services.
China, India and Singapore have become hotbeds for healthtech start-ups in Asia. Most of the startups that came up in the last year were about doctor and clinic discovery, which makes sense given that both India and China have a acute shortage of doctors given their large populations.