How This Start-up is Intersecting Finance, Healthcare and Technology Entrepreneur India interacts with Founder of AffordPlan, Tejbir Singh, on bagging $13million funding and how technology will bring harmony to the problem of bringing congruency between finance and healthcare
By Bhavya Kaushal •
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AffordPlan, as the name suggests, endeavours to build a full stack of financial services for healthcare across savings, lending and insurance products. The start-up that intersects finance, healthcare and technology recently raised around $ 13 million in three rounds of funding from Kalaari Capital, Lok Capital, Prime Venture Partners and Omidyar Network.
Launched in 2016 and founded by Tejbir Singh and Hemal Bhatt, AffordPlan aims to offer affordable and accessible high-quality healthcare for all. Entrepreneur India interacts with Tejbir Singh, in an email exchange, to understand more about the brand and its plans.
Adopting an Affordable Plan
Singh has worked with notable brands such as Amazon and Deutsche Bank before venturing as an all-out entrepreneur with AffordPlan. The second co-founder, Bhatt, an ex-Army Captain and a Management Professional too had something to offer.
The need to incept such a company arose when Singh recognized a national predicament, "Majority of the Indian population does not have access to cashless insurance, leaving a large number of individuals especially in the middle and lower income groups without any financial solutions for health." This is the basic and the most fundamental problem that Indians face and it seems that such practices need to be stopped.
This led to amalgamating the problems with the key feature that runs the world in today's time- technology. Intersecting finance, technology and health gave birth to AffordPlan, Singh says, "The product allows planned savings, ideal for non-emergency treatments such as maternity, dental, eye care, knee replacement and more." Moreover, he adds, "Hospitals and patients can co-design flexible payment plans so that patients can obtain medical treatment and products through a manageable payment structure developed based on individual need and cash flow."
Benefit the Millennials
The biggest relief that this start-up venture provides is, according to Singh, that it smoothens the cash flow for the patient by breaking up the entire treatment's cost into smaller manageable instalments. "Our product solution is customized to the patient's medical and financial situation and helps reduce the overall treatment costs by 15-20%."
The cause is set up such a platform is clear. "AffordPlan understands that there is a need for one to save for planned healthcare procedures and thus have created a platform which sits at the intersection of healthcare, finance and technology." The addition of technology will only smoothen the creases that people face while putting finance and health together in a harmonious manner.
Getting into Action
Singh shares that through the funding they aim to expand, "We will focus on building a full stack of financial services products for healthcare and deepen our corresponding distribution and supply chain capabilities." Currently, they are in over 9 cities. "We aim to expand our network, both in terms of presence in a location, as well as tie-ups with more hospitals."
AffordPlan's biggest USP lies in the fact that it works to reduce the burden of patients' out-of-pocket expenses. Biggest aspect being, that there is a need for one to save for planned healthcare procedures. And AffordPlan recognizes this need.
"Whatever the healthcare needs maybe, with AffordPlan, you can plan ahead and save systematically beforehand," Singh says and signs off.
