StanPlus Technology Pvt. Ltd, an emergency medical response startup, on Monday said it has raised $20 million (around Rs 148 crore) in a Series A funding round led by Healthquad, Kalaari Capital, and HealthX Singapore as the startup seeks to provide ambulance services in just eight minutes.
The investment round also saw participation from Pegasus (Hiranandani family office), Sandeep Singhal (Avaana) and Prashant Malik besides a clutch of angel investors, StanPlus said in a statement.
The funding round includes debt funding from N+1 capital. In addition, the company raised $2 million from Grip Invest to be used for leasing ambulances.
VCCircle first reported last year that StanPlus was in discussions with several venture capital firms including HealthQuad for a Series A fundraise.
Hyderabad-based StanPlus will use the funds to scale up its operations to 500 hospitals, and launch its flagship Red Ambulance brand in 15 cities from the current five with an aim to reduce the expected time of arrivals of ambulances from 15 minutes to 8 minutes.
“In India, grocery is 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," said Prabhdeep Singh, Founder and CEO, StanPlus, in the statement.
The fresh capital is expected to help the company to hire and boost its technological capabilities.
Charles-Antoine Janssen, CIO, HealthQuad, noted that case fatality rates for road traffic accidents, cardiac and neurological emergencies remain significantly higher in India than those of the developed world due to an inadequate and inefficient medical emergency response system (ERS).
Stanplus' model could be rapidly scaled up and its tech-enabled platform has the potential to save millions of lives in the coming years, added Janssen.
Veda Corporate Advisors was an exclusive advisor to StanPlus and its shareholder in its Series-A equity investment.
StanPlus was founded in 2016 by Singh, Antoine Poirson and Jose Leon, who are all graduates of business school INSEAD. The company provides ambulance services for emergency, non-emergency, and support sectors. Vehicles are equipped with life support systems, cardiac machines, and other patient care systems.
The startup raised $1.1 million in seed funding led by KStart Capital, the seed programme run by Kalaari Capital, in October 2017. In 2019, it secured $1.5 million in pre-Series A funding led by Pegasus FinInvest.
Other startups in the ambulance services sector that have raised seed funding so far include Mumbai-based Dial4242 and Hyderabad-based 1st Consult Technologies, which runs ambulance hailing platform Ambee.
