India’s first B2B healthcare financing platform Delhi based HealthCRED has bagged $1.2 million in its seed round led by Antler India, TRTL VC, DeVC, iSeedVC and Angel List India. The round was led by Antler India, TRTL VC, DeVC, iSeedVC and Angel List India. The round also saw participation from prominent angel investors including Dr. Subho Ray (President, IAMAI), Nitin Gupta (CEO, Uni Cards), Amit Lakhotia (CEO, ParkPlus) and founders of InsuranceDekho and SEA-based Docquity.

The freshly infused capital will be strategically utilized to enhance customer relationships and expand operations to the Southern and Western parts of the country. It will also be allocated to hire fresh talents and develop state-of-the-art B2B loan onboarding and loan management systems, creating an end-to-end digitized B2B healthcare lending framework.

The startup was established in 2022 by Shrey Jain and Arpit Jangir. The startup is poised to become India’s first healthcare-focused Small Finance Bank (SFB). The company provides swift, comprehensive, and adaptable financing solutions tailored for the healthcare sector. HealthCRED’s collaborative approach involves partnering with Hospitals, specialised Healthcare Service Providers (HSPs across nephrology, oncology, and diagnostics), Insurers, and Pharmaceutical and Consumable Supply Chain partners to deliver intelligent and efficient financing solutions.

The Co-Founder & CEO of HealthCRED Shrey Jain, commented, "With the rapid penetration of health insurance in the post-COVID scenario, there has been an increased working capital management stress for Hospitals and HSPs. The key factor is the delay associated with the realisation of insurance receivables. Our aim is to work towards stabilising their cash flow cycles, through early financing of these delayed receivables. This would help further ensure quality delivery of patient care, thereby enabling improved alignment with SDG Target 3.8 and Universal Healthcare Coverage (UHC)".

Partner at Antler India Nitin Sharma commented that the healthcare ecosystem has faced a significant working capital gap, particularly impacting small to mid-sized hospitals with limited capital access and claims management capabilities. He said that the gap was expected to widen with increasing health insurance penetration and delayed insurer payments.

Nitin further informed, “Banks and NBFCs typically focus on large hospital infrastructural loans, leaving small hospitals underserved. HealthCRED aims to address this by offering working capital finance against cashless insurance receivables, targeting a multi-billion dollar gap. We are thrilled to back Shrey, Arpit, and the HealthCRED team to become a major healthcare lender, addressing various financing needs over time.”

HealthCRED is tackling a significant working capital shortfall in hospitals and the healthcare supply chain, focusing on the demands of India's expanding healthcare sector, which exceeds $300 billion. With its aggressive growth objectives, the company plans to distribute more than $1 billion over the next five years using digital platforms, leveraging alternative data for its underwriting processes.