Japan’s HLM Acquires Elevation Capital-Backed Healthtech Startup Care24

Japanese home medical support company, Human Life Management (HLM), has acquired Indian home healthcare startup, Care24, for an undisclosed amount.

The all-cash acquisition saw existing investors including Elevation, IQ, DI and StartUp Health receiving cash exit via the deal.

Post the acquisition, both HLM and Care24 will work together to scale and strengthen medical service offerings in India. The deal will also help the startup to expand to other Southeast countries including Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia.

The international expansion will be operationalised via a joint venture between HLM and Care24. The newly created entity will be called ‘Care24 International’ and will handle the international aspect of the company.

HLM will also help the startup in launching a slew of medical offerings in the Indian market including end of life care, critical care at home, family doctor subscription service, doctor on call, among others.

Founded in 2014, Care24 is the brainchild of Vipin Pathak and Garima Tripathi that offers professional medical care to help patients at their doorsteps. The startup claims to have over 1.3 Mn patients visits on its platform across Mumbai and Delhi. 

Care24 CEO and cofounder, Vipin Pathak, said, “We aim to bridge the gaps of Global Medical expertise, best practices, capital and network in Japan, south-east Asia with HLM and Care24’s existing capabilities. All our investors are also excited and pleased with this acquisition and strongly believe that HLM is the right long term partner for us. Together, we envision an accelerated growth for the company and plan to change the course of healthcare in India as well as globally.”

Echoing the sentiment, HLM CEO, Yoshiki Sasaki said, “HLM was highly captivated by Care24’s strong delivery record of facilitating care at home to more than 1000+ families daily, between Mumbai and Delhi and thereby instituted an all cash acquisition.The amalgamation of HLM’s extensive medical expertise such as care plan, understanding of end of life customer lifecycle management offerings and Care24’s sophisticated technology platform which algorithmically matches providers and seekers in real time  for home healthcare, will globally revolutionise and instill the much needed quality care.”

HLM has been one of the prime investors in Care24 for the past two years and the deal is expected to leverage Care24’s service delivery and agile technology platform for HLM.

Founded in 2002, HLM is a Japan-based medical services company that provides home medical care and nurse care for senior citizens.

The acquisition comes barely days after dental healthcare startup, Smiles, raised $23 Mn in Series A funding round led by Alpha Wave Incubation, among others. Earlier today, another home healthcare startup, Zorgers, also raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Ritu Marya Family Office.

In total, the healthtech sector received $2.2 Bn in funding across 131 deals last year. As many as 3,548 healtech startups were active in the country in 2021.

The demand for home care services has seen a massive jump amid Covid-19 pandemic. The global market is expected to grow to $545.1 Bn by 2028. A RedSeer report had pegged the market at $5.4 Bn in 2020. The report had also noted that the market was on its way to reach the $11-13 Bn mark by 2025, growing  at 15-19% a year.

While the demand for home care has risen manifold, so have the players in the segment. The startup faces stiff competition from players like HealthCare At Home, Portea, Apollo Homecare, among others..

The investment will help consolidate the sector and will help the acquired startup increase its presence across Southeast Asia. The investment appears to be a win-win for both parties involved. 

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