Given the demography of India, VCs need to step up their game and understand the holistic development of molecular diagnostics, keeping all levels of stakeholders involved in their studies
The initial and follow-on capital for R&D is critical to the success of the early-stage capital-intensive phase of molecular diagnostic startups in India
Let’s take a look at an 8X Ventures research study that helped identify the key areas where various stakeholders must collaborate to build the country's molecular diagnostics infrastructure
760,360,956 confirmed cases and 6,873,477 deaths. This is what the WHO reports on the Covid-19 pandemic. Why begin with these hard-to-count numbers? What if I told you that if we had widespread infrastructure and adoption of molecular diagnostics in place, these numbers could have been way, way smaller? And are these just numbers or real people who could not be saved?
One could argue that the pandemic is almost over, why bother now? Because history repeats itself in one form or another, and we better be prepared when it does. The next good question is, who will help set this momentum and infrastructure up? Governments, corporations, non-profits but also investors who are ready to bet their money and energy on early-stage startups are where these deep science technologies come into being.