Y-Combinator-backed buy now pay later startup BharatX on Wednesday said it has acquired healthcare fintech startup Zenifi to foray into medical loans segment in the country. The company, however, didn’t disclose the deal amount. Zenifi co-founder and CEO Padam Kataria will join BharatX as the Head of Business – Healthcare to build the healthcare lending business of the company.
“By being a part of BharatX, Zenifi team can leverage the pre-existing lending platform and realise better economics. And this acquisition will allow BharatX to break into the healthcare sector, a sector ripe for disruption and one of the largest sectors needing credit after its disruptive success in online shopping credit solutions,” the company said in a statement.
Speaking on the acquisition, BharatX co-founder and CEO Mehul Jindal said, “Healthcare sector in India faces a significant challenge when it comes to paying for medical services. This becomes a problem especially during emergencies. India continues to spend the largest amount for accessing healthcare through their own pockets, making availing medical facilities an expensive proposition.”
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BharatX said it currently enables financing options for over 125 brands. The company claimed 33x growth in the past five quarters and over $4.7 million raised in funding so far. BharatX has disbursed loan to over 2 lakh users so far.
“We have firsthand experience of making medical lending easy and accessible and with BharatX’s well-established credit as a service, the synergies between the two companies will ensure that we can accelerate the speed with which we capture the market,” said Padam Kataria, CEO, Zenifi.
According to a Bain & Company report in March this year, the Indian healthcare market size was around $180 billion in FY2023 and is expected to grow at around 12 per cent compound annual growth rate to about $320 billion by FY2028. Moreover, the medtech segment was around $11 billion, dominated by imports, which accounted for 75 per cent – 80 per cent of the market.
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