Ankur Jain

Premiering now on the Digital Health Heavyweights Podcast I have a conversation with the co founder and CEO of Bonfire Analytics Vinay Nagaraj! One great moment was when Vinay says that while business moves at the speed of trust, so does sales. I could not agree more. It requires a huge level of authenticity, being able to connect with a person, as a person. Building deeper relationships. There is a lot to learn on this weeks episode. Vinay shares his journey from biomedical engineering to healthcare sales, discussing the challenges and successes he faced while scaling revenue at Roundtrip. He emphasizes the importance of authentic relationships in sales, the role of data in healthcare, and the key traits he looks for in salespeople. Vinay also discusses the inspiration behind Bonfire Analytics, its mission to accelerate healthcare technology adoption, and the common mistakes healthcare companies make in sales. He provides insights into market opportunities, the importance of making data actionable, and offers advice for founders seeking funding. I always love asking my guests the 3 things they look for when hiring for sales roles, Vinay shares three traits he likes to seek out: 1. Hunger to LEARN, someone always focusing on learning, growing, improving themselves personally, and professionally. 2. Taking Initiative- startups are all the hats, building the plane while you're flying it. So if you see a process that needs fixing, fix it. 3. Strong Communicators- communications that is clear, direct, and easy to understand. I would add radical transparency to this list, but I did only give him 3 traits to distill. Check in to learn if you're a vitamin, or a pain killer, emerging markets, and of course all about Bonfire's impact, and goals, and more! Check out our key takeaways: 🎯 Salespeople should focus on understanding customer pain points to be effective. 📊 Bonfire Analytics aims to provide actionable insights to healthcare companies to improve sales efficiency. 🌍 Vinay's global upbringing fostered adaptability and resilience, essential traits for a startup founder. 🏥 Healthcare companies often make the mistake of relying too heavily on large health systems for sales. 🔑 Data must be actionable; Bonfire helps clients leverage data effectively for their sales strategies. Check it all out here: https://lnkd.in/dnvucCrF

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🚀 AI-Powered Healthcare Gets a Boost: Narayana Health Unveils ‘AIRA’ by Athma Narayana Health has launched AIRA, an AI-driven tool built on their in-house EMR platform Athma, designed to transform patient data management. Why this matters across the healthcare industry: • Administrative Efficiency: AIRA uses AI to process digital and scanned records, generating clinical timelines and smart tags that reduce paperwork. • Human-Centered Input: Doctors can input via touch, voice, or ambient listening. The tool automatically structures the data with minimal manual effort. • Boosting Productivity: Dr. Devi Shetty notes that AIRA can potentially double or triple doctor productivity while reducing errors and lowering costs. • Proactive Care: AIRA offers real-time risk predictions and alerts, helping healthcare teams move from reactive to preventive care. • Burnout Reduction: With doctors spending nearly 6 hours daily on EMRs and 91% working beyond hours, tools like AIRA are critical. Our Perspective at Easy Clinic At Easy Clinic, we share the same vision: make technology invisible so clinicians can focus on care. • Smart Documentation: Like AIRA, our EMR platform uses AI to reduce administrative overhead and improve accuracy. • Intuitive Input Methods: We are working on voice and context-aware interfaces that fit seamlessly into busy clinical environments. • Real-Time Decision Support: Easy Clinic's AI tools help clinicians with nudges and early alerts for better care outcomes. • Scalable Impact: We believe EMRs must work for large multi-location chains as well as smaller community clinics, without compromising performance or affordability. AIRA’s launch reinforces what many of us in the industry already feel .. AI is no longer optional in healthcare. It’s essential for scale, quality, and sustainability. At Easy Clinic, we’re inspired by these developments and remain committed to building intelligent tools that truly empower doctors and improve patient outcomes. Would love to hear from others, how are you seeing AI transform your healthcare workflows? #DigitalHealth #HealthTech #AIinHealthcare #EMR #ClinicalAI #PatientCare #DoctorTools #HealthcareInnovation #HealthIT #SmartClinics #FutureOfHealthcare #HealthTechIndia #KenyaHealthTech #EasyClinic #CuraPilot #NarayanaHealth #AIRA #AthmaEMR #ClinicalProductivity #AIpoweredCare

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🚀 Funding Update in the Indian Startup Ecosystem Mumbai-based Luma fertility, a tech-enabled fertility care startup, has successfully raised $4 million in seed funding, led by Peak XV Partners (via its Surge program), along with participation from notable investors like Ameera Shah (Metropolis Healthcare) and Vijay Taparia (B2V Ventures). Founded by Neha K Motwani, Luma Fertility is building a patient-first platform to offer end-to-end reproductive care—covering IVF, fertility assessments, egg freezing, at-home diagnostics, and more. The startup is leveraging technology and empathy to modernize fertility services in India. 📍 With a flagship clinic in Bandra West, Mumbai, Luma now aims to expand across multiple cities over the next two years. This is yet another sign of rising investor confidence in healthtech and femtech sectors in India. As a funding consultant, I closely track such movements and assist businesses in navigating their own equity and debt funding journeys. 📩 If you're a startup or growing company looking to raise capital or explore funding options, feel free to connect. #FundingNews #StartupFunding #SeedFunding #LumaFertility #PeakXV #HealthTech #FemTech #IndianStartups #Linkedin #techindia #healthcare

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The healthcare ecosystem in India presents a unique set of challenges and opportunities for startups. The 4th Brij Round discussion with the founder of an India-focused health platform highlighted several crucial points for pitching investors in this complex market: Clarify Your Stakeholders and Sales Channels: It is essential to clearly articulate which stakeholder will be paying for your product and who will be responsible for making the sale. This demonstrates a clear understanding of the market dynamics. Justify Your Sales Channel: Go beyond identifying your sales channel. Explain why it is the most effective choice and what incentives are in place for that channel to succeed. Focus on Value and Retention, Not Just Technology: While your technology is important, your pitch should focus on the tangible value you provide to the user and the strategies you will employ for user retention. Provide Clear ROI Calculations: India is a price-sensitive and value-conscious market. A well-articulated calculation of the return on investment for your customers is not just a nice-to-have; it's a necessity. Keep Your Initial Presentation Focused: Avoid overwhelming investors with too much information in the first meeting. The primary objective of your initial pitch is to convince them of your vision and the viability of your business. Further details can be discussed in subsequent meetings. Navigating the Indian healthcare market requires a nuanced approach. A pitch that addresses these key points will be significantly more compelling to investors. #Healthcare #HealthTech #Startup #Entrepreneurship #VentureCapital #India #Pitching

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The fastest path into healthcare AI isn’t where most founders think. At Vertical Velocity in San Mateo today, I hosted a panel with seed investors Jyotika Gupta of z21 Ventures, Anuradhika A. Of CommonSpirit Health Ventures and Varsha Rao of Flare Capital Partners on healthcare x AI. One pattern emerged clearly: *Win the periphery first*. The founders winning today aren’t battling Epic or Cerner head-on. They’re entering through administrative workloads—supply chain optimization, scheduling, pre-authorization. Areas where you’re adding capability, not displacing entrenched solutions. The same logic applies to care settings: home health and mental health offer lower friction than acute care. You avoid the “rip and replace” conversation entirely. *Voice is the wedge product right now* Every investor on the panel is seeing voice AI traction across clinical documentation, patient engagement, and care coordination. The tech has hit the adoption curve. My colleague Rohil Bagga has written deeper dives on both our healthcare AI thesis and why voice AI is reaching inflection. Worth your time if you’re building in this space: • Voice AI: https://lnkd.in/g2eJqe4J • Healthcare AI: https://lnkd.in/gHFsb-zM SaaSBoomi

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Fascinating conversation on solving population scale problems in the health domain with visible use of AI with fundamental sciences at work.

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India’s Reveal HealthTech Raises $7.2M: Building Scalable AI Solutions for Local Contexts Reveal HealthTech, based in Bengaluru, just closed a $7.2M Series A to scale its AI-driven healthcare solutions across India and beyond. What caught my attention is not just the funding. It's the proof that AI health innovation must be built with local context in mind. 💡 Key lessons for product teams building health-tech: - Data Bias, Local Realities Matter AI models trained on U.S. or European datasets rarely translate cleanly to Indian demographics, infrastructure, or disease prevalence. Localization is essential. - Infrastructure Constraints = Feature Trade-offs In many regions, intermittent connectivity, varied device types, limited compute, and data privacy constraints mean your AI needs to degrade gracefully. - Regulation, Culture & Trust Need Parity with Tech You must think beyond models: how will clinicians, patients, and regulators perceive your AI tech’s outputs and recommendations? - Product Scalability Must Be Regionally Modular You may want to scale quickly, but the architecture should allow modular plug-and-play abilities: swapping in local data sources, regional metrics, or regulatory logic without reworking the whole system. - Sustainability and Monetization Demand Local Partnerships In markets with constrained consumer purchasing power, business models are often B2B/B2G; success depends on integrating with local payers, public health agencies, and care networks. Reveal’s raise signals that investors are back to betting on AI health-tech. But, the winners will be those who build deeply rooted, context-aware, scalable systems. What are the biggest misassumptions you’ve seen global AI health products make when entering new regions? #HealthTech #AIinHealthcare #StartupGrowth #DigitalHealth #EmergingMarkets #Innovation #ProductStrategy #IndiaTech #AIProductDesign #ProductManagement

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A majority of health systems right now are forming AI councils, hiring consulting firms, and building “AI strategies.” It sounds smart. But in practice, it’s paralysis by analysis. Months go by, and nothing changes as IT implementation timelines grow. The top health systems in the country are taking the opposite approach. They start small. They pick one manual, labor-intensive workflow. They implement AI there, learn fast, and scale what works. You don’t need to boil the ocean. You don’t need the perfect use case. You just need to start. Share the early wins. Empower your internal champions. Stack those learnings until momentum takes over. Innovative Health systems are adopting AI 2.2x faster than the broader economy. Some have realized AI isn’t a future strategy, it’s a present advantage. The rest are still stuck watching consulting decks... At Resolvd, we’ve had the privilege of helping leading health systems deliver quick, measurable wins, showing that their data is ready (regardless of format), and inspiring confidence across the org. We’ve seen major success in supply chain, procurement, and accounts payable, three functions where automation drives immediate ROI. If you’re in these areas and want to deliver your first AI win end to end in 8 weeks... Let’s connect. ⚡ 🏥

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Practo Technologies, which runs a digital health platform, is planning an IPO, sources say, joining a wave of companies rushing to capitalize on India’s buoyant market for first-time share sales. https://bloom.bg/4qfI3Ng

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Agilitas x Virat Kohli partnership is one of the masterstroke deals I have seen in recent times. Virat invests 40 CR in Agilitas for a 1.94% stake, putting Agilitas’s valuation around 2000 CR. 📈 In turn, Agilitas acquires one8world, making Virat a co-founder and shareholder. They now get two very important growth levers: ⬇️ 1. A powerful manufacturing (via Mochiko Shoes - a 600 CR+ footwear brand that Agilitas acquired in 2008 ), 2. India’s biggest athlete — exclusively aligned. Easily becomes a 4000 CR revenue brand in the next 5 years. Footwear + retail scale requires capital — but this partnership compresses customer acquisition, product cycles, and brand-building like few others. Even Virat said in his podcast with Abhishek Ganguly, the co-founder of Agilitas that, “I didn’t want a brand deal… I wanted to build something that outlives me.” And Abhishek said something even beautiful - “An ambition to build from India but be globally relevant.” This isn’t marketing. This is legacy building with shared skin in the game. And that is how startups work - shared ambition with one goal (to make the company big) and food (read stake) in the table for everyone! A company that can be built in the long term with culture, capital, and conviction aligned. This might be the first time in India, where an athlete joins hands with a sport company to re-imagine and build the sport ecosystem of India - truly revolutionalising the game with a clear vision. 🙌

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Had an insightful conversation with Nishant Mishra, CMO at Apollo Health & Lifestyle, and a visionary who’s redefining how healthcare connects with millions. The insight that stood out: “Trust in healthcare isn’t just a message it’s a lived experience, delivered consistently.” Appreciate you for sharing your incredible journey from being inspired by MTV to leading marketing for one of India’s most trusted healthcare brands. Full podcast link in the comments. #MarketingMavericks #HealthcareMarketing #EmpoweringCreatives #InnovationFirst #CreativeIntegrity

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Over 11,000 healthtech startups have launched in India since 2014, and yet, funding continues to tell a different story. In 2024, the sector raised just $0.7 billion across 78 deals. Even in Q1 of 2025, of the $301 million raised, nearly all came from a single $275 million round by Innovaccer. The shortage of capital has early-stage innovators struggling to succeed. The potential is immense, but unless we nurture a wider base of startups with sustained domestic capital, India risks missing the healthtech opportunity. #Healthtech #Funding #Startups #Innovation

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This is a very very serious problem. Unless it is fixed on a high priority basis this will be ruin of India in long term. I will explain from macroeconomic and technology perspective my area of specialization. I spend more than 10 years in USA working in capital markets and came back to India. Health care in USA is completely broken. USA is in huge financial problems (38 trillion dollars debt). Dollar being a reserve currency is the main reason why USA still is so powerful. But by 2040 the debt level in USA will be so huge medicare and social Security will go bankrupt. India is all set to be a 100 tr $ GDP ( by ppp) by 2050. India all set to be health care capital of the world. But this is only possible if we can really capitalize on our demographic dividend. A broken healthcare framework will wreck India's future almost certainly. Due to aging OECD countries will face massive healthcare problems starting 2035 or so. The healthcare, pharma and medical tourism industry in India is potentially 5x bigger than information technology boom we are seeing now. #doctor #healthcare #usa #india #oecd #health #wellness #wellbeing #medicalscience #medicaltourism

The Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) and PM-JAY are bold initiatives—digitizing records, integrating claims, and bringing millions into a digital health ecosystem. But here’s the hard question: Are we moving as fast on privacy as we are on digitization? A recent look at the PM-JAY dashboard reveals just how much sensitive information is out there: – Names – Hospitals – Discharge dates – Out-of-pocket payments All the details are available without a login. India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act introduces fresh classifications of “sensitive” information that all stakeholders are still decoding. While the legal framework evolves, technology must proactively reinforce privacy. Health data isn’t just numbers. It’s a deeply personal story—one that can be triangulated, profiled, and (in the wrong hands) misused. This is where technology must do more. At Vitraya, we believe digitization and privacy should go hand in hand. Our use of Blockchain isn’t just for speed or automation. It’s about building a system where: 1/ Every transaction is encrypted, traceable, and secure. 2/ Patients control who accesses their information. 3/ Sensitive data can’t be leaked or profiled—by design, not by policy. Privacy isn’t a “nice to have”—it’s the foundation of trust. Especially in health insurance, where claims data, billing records, and health history shape real lives. The future of digital health insurance in India must be both fast and fair. We can’t afford shortcuts. Bill digitization should not just eliminate paper; it should eliminate the anxiety of “who’s watching?” Let’s commit to digital health with privacy built in—from day one. #Insurance #AyushmanBharat #DigitalHealth #PrivacyByDesign #Blockchain #InsurTech #Vitraya

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This article, co-authored by Vardaan Ahluwalia and me lays out India's significant new Research Development and Innovation Fund initiative in the context of other successful interventions: when governments and the private sector work together, they can make a transformative difference to deep technology entrepreneurship. Equally, initiatives to help manage financial risk should be followed by structural reforms in areas ranging from intellectual property regulation, ease of clearances for start-ups, tax rationalization in capital gains and options that helps start-ups attract talent, and a visa regime that attracts leading global researchers. https://lnkd.in/gk92YSZa

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