According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), diabetes is a growing challenge in India, with an estimated 8.7 percent diabetic population in the age group of 20 and 70 years.
Rapid urbanisation, sedentary lifestyles, unhealthy diets, tobacco use, and increasing life expectancy, among other factors, are fuelling other chronic diseases like hypertension and kidney disorders.
ISB alumnus Aniruddha Sen—with over a decade of experience in the insurance space—saw an opportunity in this high hospital visiting demographic.
Instead of creating a health insurance startup, Aniruddha, and his chartered accountant co-founder Dhiraj Goel, decided to launch a subscription-based health check-up startup, , in 2019.
Business model
“There are two kinds of health issues in India. Preventive and curative. While people think about health care as curative, things have started to change now pushed by the onset of the pandemic,” Aniruddha tells YourStory in an interaction.
Aniruddha Sen (right), and his chartered accountant co-founder Dhiraj Goel (left), decided to launch a subscription-based health check-up startup, Kenko Health, in 2019.
Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, awareness around health insurance and taking preventive measures were on the rise. Following fitness regimes and a proper diet became the new normal. And many legacy and new-age brands doubled down on launching immunity-boosting products to capture the market.
“People are looking for preventive options, and that’s where we come in. We finance healthcare in a non-insurance way. Let’s say, if a person has some smaller healthcare expenses, we have found a way to finance it in the form of a subscription service,” he explains.
Started under Redkenko Health Tech Pvt Ltd, the Bengaluru-based health insurtech startup offers customers monthly subscription plans—including mini, individual, OPD family, and an ultimate plan—priced between Rs 299 and Rs 1,999.
With these 30-day period plans, Kenko Health aims to help customers save more on their regular healthcare expenses incurred outside the hospital, which burn big holes in the pockets of regular, middle-class households.
For its outpatient department (OPD) treatments, the insure-tech startup offers between 20-90 percent discount on the entire bill, including medical, consultation and diagnostic fees. It also offers discounts on dental and mental health services in select plans.
In fact, Kenko Health has partnered with online pharmacy Tata 1MG and diagnostic provider Thyrocare to offer discounts to its customers.
With no waiting period for using its services, the startup conducts a screening test for its potential customers.
“We check for certain conditions, and usually do not say no to people. However, if someone has Type – II diabetes with a kidney condition, we may consider certain factors before we approve their subscription,” says Aniruddha.
Future plans
Kenko Health has a 350-member strong team. At present, it has 70,000 customers from Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Kolkata, and Nagpur, among other cities.
By the end of FY 2022-23, the startup plans to add one lakh subscribers. The firm is also in the process of adding dental care and mental health consultations to its subscription plans.
Credit: YourStory Design
Like any other insurance company, Kenko Health makes money when customers do not claim for their paid services. According to Aniruddha, the insure-tech startup generates nearly Rs 5 crore monthly revenue, growing at 2X.
It also serves 40 corporate players, including Rebel Foods, which owns Faasos and Ovenstory, and Shaadi.com.
In February 2022, the company raised $13.7 million in the Series A round of funding led by Sequoia Capital India. Investors including BEENEXT and Orios Venture Partners—who had invested $1.7 million in the seed round—also participated in the funding round.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, India has seen a rise in the demand for health insurance. “There was always a market for it. But now people are also demanding it,” says Gaurav Dubey, IIFL Insurance’s LivLong, a doctor consultation and diagnostics app.
The health insurance market reportedly grew by 34 percent, reaching Rs 73,300 crore in 2020-21, according to the National Insurance Academy, Pune, and Insurance Foundation of India, Delhi.
Kenko Health competes with established health insurance players including ICICI Lombard, Max Bupa Health Insurance, and Apollo Munich.
