StanPlus, which offers 8-min ambulance service, raises $20 million

Health-tech startup StanPlus which promises 8-mins ambulance delivery to patients has raised $20 million in a combination of debt and equity, Series A round from healthcare venture capital firm HealthQuad and HealthX besides exiting investor Kalaari Capital.

Avaana Capital's Sandeep Singhal and Cassandra's Prashant Malik also invested in the round. The debt on the other hand was raised from N+1 Capital and Caspian.

The company will utilise the fund to expand operations to newer geographies, enhance technology and increase employee base.

Hyderabad-based StanPlus aggregates and standardises hospitals, as well as mom-and-pop ambulances, through its tech platform. It also runs its own fleet of Advanced Life Support (ALS) ambulances. On its platform it has ambulances and paramedics to offer a 360 emergency care service to patients.

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"We are building a new age response system in the country. We want to bring down the response time below eight minutes," Prabhdeep Singh, founder and chief executive officer told Moneycontrol in an interaction adding that if groceries can be delivered in India in less than 10 minutes so can ambulances.

According to Singh, the existing average expected arrival time of ambulances in India is 18 minutes. Every extra minute reduces the chance of the patient's survival.

StanPlus plans to launch operations across 500 hospitals and launch its flagship ambulance brand in 15 cities. Currently it is present across five cities. According to him, the emergency response industry in India is valued at $15 billion. However this is a highly fragmented market.

The company also plans to secure a star number much like 911 in the US to cater to emergency needs of patients.

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"Stanplus has developed an innovative, tech-enabled platform to address emergency responses and manage timely ambulance dispatches through its fleet of Red Ambulances. We believe that this model could be rapidly scaled up across the country and has the potential to save millions of lives in the coming years," said Charles Antoine Janssen, Chief Investment Officer of HealthQuad.