Funding, major challenge in health and life science start ups, says new report

Startups in life sciences and healthcare have been facing funding challenges with 35 per cent naming it as a key challenge according to a report. The EY report 'Life Sciences 4.0: transforming health care in India' noted that 35 per cent of the 60 life sciences and healthcare startups in India mentioned receiving funding was the key challenge, followed by understanding of regulatory process and collaboration with bigger life sciences and healthcare companies.

The lack of sufficient funding was evident from the fact that 43 per cent of the respondents were bootstrapped while 42 per cent are also leveraging government incubators. Further, the difficulty in getting into collaborations is also visible from the very low percentage (5 per cent) of companies with more than 10 collaborations while majority (69 per cent) have 0 to only 3 collaborations.

Owing to challenges in partnering with bigger companies, 71 per cent of the start-ups mentioned that they have collaborated with comparatively smaller or mid-size companies with revenues less than Rs 100 crore. It noted that 42 per cent of the respondents said that receiving timely and substantial funding will provide opportunity for driving further business growth, while 38 per cent felt product innovation and rising market potential due to rising incomes, health and technological awareness also have a key role to play.

Twenty three per cent of the respondents also pointed towards strong government support as a responsible factor for attaining the next level of business growth. While noting that 18 percent of life sciences and healthcare start-ups have unique products and services, it said that 82 per cent of life sciences and healthcare startups offer improved affordability, accessibility and efficiency in their products and services leveraging emerging technology.