StanPlus Raises $20 Mn To Develop Nationwide Emergency Medical Response System

Emergency medical response startup StanPlus has raised $20 Mn in debt and equity funding during a Series A round.

Healthquad, Kalaari Capital, and HealthX Singapore participated in the round along with the Hiranandani family office, Sandeep Singhal (Avaana), and Prashant Malik (LimeRoad) and some other angel investors. Debt funding was raised from N + 1 Capital and Caspian.

Founded in 2016 by Prabhdeep Singh, Jose Leon and Antone Poirson, StanPlus currently operates a network of rapid emergency dispatch (RED) ambulances that hospitals and emergency care centres can use on a B2B subscription model. 

The startup also runs emergency rooms and triage centres and aims to be an end-to-end emergency care provider. 

The freshly-infused capital will be used to scale up its operation to 500 hospitals and launch its flagship RED Ambulance in 15 cities (they currently operate in 5 cities). The startup is also looking to expand into the B2C space.

“We are looking to offer our B2C service in an omnichannel model. For example, if your Apple Watch detects that you are having a medical emergency, one can call for our service to be dispatched,” Prabhdeep Singh, founder and CEO of StanPlus said to Inc42.

“The same goes for everything else, whether it is your insurance or your employer. We will create a plug and play system. If Zomato or Uber wants to bring this service to their riders, they can do that. Anyone can send us a signal. We can take the signal and respond in time,” he continued. 

According to the startup, it is addressing the Indian emergency response market that it claims to be valued at $15 Bn. The global emergency medical services market is projected to reach $74.7 Bn by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 6.91% between 2019 and 2027.

The product segment made up a large percentage of this valuation, being worth $22.96 Bn in 2019 and is expected to reach $46.25 Bn by 2027.

“In India, groceries are delivered in 10 minutes but ambulances take 45. At StanPlus, we are focusing on the 8-minute ambulance paradigm – I like to call it the ‘First Minute, Last Mile’ Healthcare. The capital will allow us to scale across India, bring amazing talent to work on this mission, and build world-first technologies,” he added. 

Singh had a reply ready for when he was asked about the heavy capital requirements of his business model,

“My customers never ask whether I have an asset-heavy or asset-light model, but many in the startup world balk at me when I say I hire 600 people, let me tell you why this is the best model. All of my staff are employees who are well paid and have good benefits. For example, if it happens that someone has to climb to the eighth floor of a building without an elevator to rescue a patient, that needs to be an employee. Not temporary staff or ‘contract workers’,”

StanPlus’s employment model is unusual compared to the aggregator model businesses that have become abundant nowadays. But it looks like a runaway success, especially with the startup’s claims of doubling growth in the last year while staying bootstrapped and EBITDA positive.