Artificial intelligence-based health benefits startup ekincare on Thursday said it has raised $15 million (Rs 114 crore) as part of its Series B funding led by HealthQuad and Sabre Partners.
Existing investors Eight Roads Ventures, Ventureast, Siana Capital and Endiya Partners also participated in the round, said ekincare in a statement.
ekincare, operated by Aayuv Technologies Pvt. Ltd, plans to use the fresh capital to ramp up its growth and provide simplified health benefits and insurance experience to employers, it added.
Kiran Kalakuntla, Co-Founder of ekincare, said that the company expects to grow by another three times post this funding round as employee wellbeing has increasingly become the focal point of every employer’s strategy in a post-Covid world.
"Our patented platform considers behavioral data and uses it to personalize an employee’s health benefits journey, resulting in higher benefits adoption, employee engagement, and better health outcomes," added Kalakuntla.
Launched in 2014 by Kalakuntla and Srikanth Samudrala, ekincare helps companies create measurable wellness programmes and reduce healthcare costs.
Its customers include S&P Global, Target, ThyssenKrupp, Airbnb, Xpress Bees, Nykaa, Flipkart as well as small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
The corporate health and wellness market in India is worth $7 billion and is expected to grow at 20% compound annual growth rate (CAGR), the statement said citing a report by Redseer.
Ajay Mahipal, Director, HealthQuad, a venture capital firm floated by the founders of healthcare focused private equity firm Quadria, noted that ekincare is growing at a CAGR of 150% and its platform is used by more than 400 corporates and more than a million of their employees.
Arvind Chari, Principal, Eight Roads Ventures, said that ekincare demonstrated resilience to keep growing through Covid-19 by adding marquee corporate customers.
"Their platform is ready to address the surging demand from corporate clients to provide more comprehensive support for their employees," added Chari.
Prior to this funding, ekincare raised $3.6 million in a Series A funding round led by a new investor in 2019.