Clinikk Raises Funds To Integrate Health Insurance And Outpatient Care

Bengaluru-based healthtech startup Clinikk has raised $4 Mn in a Pre Series A funding round led by MassMutual Ventures. 

Kunal Shah (founder, Cred), Rohit M.A. (cofounder and MD of Cloudnine Hospitals), Anjali Bansal (founder, Avaana Capital), Stanford Angels participated in this round of funding. Clinikk’s existing investors include Times Internet, 500 Startups, and WEH Ventures.

The startup had earlier raised $2.4 Mn in seed funding, bringing its total funding amount to $6.4 Mn. 

Clinikk plans to utilise the freshly raised funds to consolidate the startup’s full stack product offering and increase its footprint in Bengaluru and other cities. It will also invest in product development and talent. 

“Unfortunately, primary care is often neglected, and because of this, we see huge increases in out-of-pocket expenses. An integrated care model leads to significantly improved health outcomes and more sustainable health insurance pricing. We are already starting to see the benefits of the model play out at Clinikk,” said Dr Suraj Baliga, cofounder of Clinikk. 

Founded in 2018 by Dr Suraj Baliga and Bhavjot Kaur, Bengaluru-based Clinikk offers a healthcare subscription service that combines outpatient care along with health insurance. The subscription package includes family health insurance and unlimited OPD coverage which is delivered either digitally or through one of the startups’ five medical centres

The Rise Of Health Insurance In India

According to Statista, nearly 500 Mn people across India are covered under insurance schemes. Of these, government-sponsored health insurance schemes covered the highest number of people while individual insurance plans covered the least. 

Last month, Bengaluru-based employee benefits and insurtech startup Pazcare had raised $3.5 Mn (INR 25 Cr) as part of a seed funding round led by BEENEXT. In September, Loop Health, a Pune-based health insurance startup had raised $12 Mn in a Series A round of funding co-led by Elevation Capital and General catalyst.

According to IBEF, the Indian healthcare market is projected to increase three-fold to be worth INR 8.6 trillion ($134 Bn) by 2022. India’s public expenditure on healthcare stood at 1.2% as a percentage of GDP.

Growth Drivers

A growing middle-class, coupled with the rising burden of new diseases is boosting the demand for health insurance coverage. Besides, lack of health insurance penetration poses a different challenge altogether. In the words of Bhavjot Kaur, cofounder of Clinikk, health insurance remains at best a prepaid hospitalisation cover.

In FY21, the gross direct premium income underwritten by health insurance companies grew 13.3% YoY to INR 58,572.46 Cr ($7.9 Bn). The health segment has 29.5% in the total gross written premiums earned in the country. 

“Over the next three months, our subscribers will be able to reach a qualified doctor digitally or walk into their nearest Clinikk network care centre in 10 minutes. The entire care, be it primary or secondary or tertiary, will be completely cashless,” said Kaur. 

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