Apollo Hospitals Acquires Accel-Backed Healthtech Startup Onco

Amid rumours of cancer care startup Onco’s shutdown, sources privy to the matter told Inc42 that the startup was acquired by hospital chain Apollo Hospitals. 

Without revealing the financial details of the deal, the sources said that the acquisition took place in December last year. 

“Apollo acquired Onco.com in a transaction that concluded in December 2024. Moving forward, Onco.com will be built by Apollo as part of its oncology plan. Apollo plans to infuse more capital to grow the startup’s business,” one of the sources said. 

A questionnaire sent to Apollo Hospitals and Onco cofounder Rashie Jain on the acquisition didn’t elicit any response till the time of publishing this story.

Onco came in the spotlight earlier this month after OkCredit CEO Harsh Pokharna said on LinkedIn that the healthtech startup has shut operations.

“They also built a strong brand. At their peak, they had 25,000+ visitors and over 1000 unique leads (cancer patients) every month – all organic, across their website, app, and social channels. We really thought hospitals would see the value in owning or partnering with a brand like this. But it didn’t work out that way,” Pokharna said in the post. 

However, the sources said that Onco didn’t shut down but was acquired. Founded by Jain and Dr Amit Jotwani in 2016, Onco raised $13 Mn in funding from investors like Accel, Rainmatter, Alteria Capital, among others. 

The startup operated as an internet aggregator specialising in cancer care, leveraging global oncologists to provide accurate and personalised scientific advice to cancer patients at every stage of their treatment journey.

It helped in connecting patients with relevant treatment centres, doctors and labs, and provided solutions to their questions and concerns throughout their treatment journey.

Notably, the Apollo Group is currently in the process of demerging its pharmacy distribution and digital platform business, Apollo HealthCo, into a new entity. The demerger will lead to the spin off of its omnichannel pharmacy distribution and Apollo 24/7 digital health platform, currently under Apollo HealthCo, into a new company named Apollo Healthtech. 

Apollo is expected to publicly announce Onco’s acquisition after the demerger is completed. 

Meanwhile, following the acquisition by Apollo, Jain is now focussing on building her second startup — GenAI-first platform Marvix AI, as per her LinkedIn profile. The startup, which is headquartered in the US, uses GenAI to automate administrative tasks for clinicians. Its application suite includes an AI scribe that ambiently records physician patient consultations and generates a finished clinical note. 

Onco’s second cofounder Dr. Jotwani, who is a clinical oncologist, is now pursuing medical practice at Medicover Hospitals in Hyderabad.