India’s frontrunning digital health startup, MFine, has secured an oversubscribed US$ 16 million led by Singaporean venture capital and private equity firm Heritas Capital Management and Y’S Investment. Other existing investors of MFine, including SBI Ven Capital, SBI Investment, Alteria Capital, and BEENEXT, also participated in this funding round.

The company said that out of the total funding round, $14 million was raised as equity and $2 million as debt financing. MFine has seen enormous growth in 2020 and is planning to use this fresh capital to continue its work to migrate India towards digital health platforms by investing more in its mobile platform, artificial intelligence, broadening its hospital network, and scale some of its newer features.

Founded in 2017, MFine is a digital healthcare platform that offers on-demand services from doctors in India. Its platform employs artificial intelligence used for triaging and patient data collection for the patient’s case sheet to be used by the doctor. It aims to provide a safer option for healthcare in India by bringing face-to-face interactions to our screens.

Heritas Capital is a venture capital, private equity, and fund-on-fund investments firm based in Singapore. It was established in 1997 and has investments in the education and healthcare sectors of Southeast Asia, India, and China. More recently, Heritas Capital has been investing in HealthTech and EdTech companies that have been able to provide solutions brought upon by the coronavirus pandemic. The firm continues to move forward as it “Invest with Purpose, Impact Across Generations” by backing innovative startups to become future tech giants and providing sustainable investment options for its investors.

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Fast-track to digital

The coronavirus has set a new standard for healthcare all over the world. Continuous lockdowns and subsequent announcements of new safety measures in India have prompted the quick migration towards safer contactless options when it comes to healthcare. During India’s Independence Day in August 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi established the National Digital Health Mission in order to officially integrate digital solutions into India’s public healthcare system. Some of the digital systems that the NDHM has been implementing are Health IDs, DigiDoctor, health facility registry, personal health records, and electronic medical records.

MFine was able to grow 10x by the end of 2020 as the pandemic pushed everyone towards the adoption of digital health platforms such as telemedicine and other programs prompted by the NDHM. Its telemedicine platform has catered to more than one million users since the pandemic started. On the doctors’ side, the company has over 4,000 doctors spanning 35 specialties who are available on its platform. Together with the doctors, MFine has addressed numerous chronic health issues including arthritis, diabetes, and other acute illnesses such as viral infections.

“The year 2020 has been very significant for us. During the pandemic, with the introduction of strict lockdowns and social distancing measures, we found ourselves in a unique position to help millions of people with access to essential healthcare services,” said Prasad Kompalli, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of MFine.

“We are seeing incredible traction on the provider and consumer side. Our vision of digital health as a solution to scale quality healthcare delivery has been accelerated by 2 years. The entire ecosystem is now on an accelerated transformation with the Indian government also introducing the National Health Stack. India is on the cusp of redefining healthcare delivery and we are actively engaged in shaping and leveraging this big shift,” Kompalli added.

MFine plans to use the oversubscribed fresh capital to keep its lead in India’s HealthTech sector by continuously innovating its current technology, growing its reach and network, and providing new services to its users. MFine plans to triple its current investments on its AI tech, device integration, and mobile engineering. Aside from investing in its tech, MFine plans to expand its reach to different hospital networks across India, and scale its newly launched features such as preventive health screenings, diagnostic tests, and medicine delivery.

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