Pristyn Care looks to double revenue to Rs 2k cr, turn a profit by FY25

This comes at a time when firm has recently found itself in hot water after facing criticism from patients who claimed that the company forced them to undergo surgeries in a bid to rake in extra cash

Healthtech unicorn Pristyn Care, which specialises in elective surgeries, is looking to almost double its revenue over the next financial year to Rs 2,000 crore as the company focuses on expansion while improving margins.

The company, which is currently generating Rs 1,100 crore in revenue, aims to turn profitable by financial year 2024-25.

"On a group level, we are currently generating Rs 1,100 crore in revenue. We will reach Rs 2,000 crore next financial year and Rs 4,000 crore in FY 25-26," Harsimarbir Singh, co-founder and CEO of Pristyn Care, told Business Standard. "We are looking to go public by FY27 as well," he said.

It comes at a time when the firm has recently found itself in hot water after facing criticism from patients who claimed that the company forced them to undergo surgeries in a bid to rake in extra cash.

The Gurugram-based start-up, which has investors like Peak XV Partners (formerly known as Sequoia Capital India) and Tiger Global among others, recently came under fire after Amita Panchal, a 47-year-old Mumbai-based bank employee and a single mother, in May, lost her lives due to an alleged botched surgery and subsequent delays in the necessary correctional surgery, as reported by Mint.

The incident sparked a spate of concerns about the company's venture capital-funded model of healthcare delivery, which, detractors say, encourages over-medication and forceful surgeries in a bid to boost revenues.

Singh has vehemently denied any practices of forced coercion in surgeries.

"We speak to 36,000 patients every day, 18,000 of whom are new patients. We conduct around 1,200 consults a day, and just 200-300 end up in surgeries. The ratio is very low. There is no question of forceful coercion into surgeries," he emphasised.

In the last 4.5 years, Pristyn has carried out around 200,000 surgeries, out of which 8-10 cases have led to instances where patients have lost their lives. This would entail a mortality rate of roughly 0.005 per cent, Singh explained.

"The national average for non-emergency surgeries is 2.5 per cent," he said.

"In some rare instances, a patient's life may be compromised. And hence, there is a protection system in place. Every patient signs a consent form and is briefed…we have several systems in place that greatly lessen the risk,” he added.

The company is currently present in 40 cities, where it runs 200 exclusive clinics. It has also partnered with 600-800 hospitals across the country.

The firm is also announcing a $10 million ESOP buyback programme in March next year, its third.

Founded in 2018 by Singh, alongside doctor couple Vaibhav Kapoor and Garima Sawhney, Pristyn Care offers patients elective surgeries and operates by partnering with hospitals to lease infrastructure such as operation theatres.

The company has its own doctors and medical equipment and leverages digital marketing and a large sales team to convert online search queries into consultations and surgeries across a host of specialities such as proctology, gynaecology, ENT, urology, orthopaedics, and IVF, among others.

"Traditionally, if a patient were to go for an elective surgery through a hospital, there is no transparency. Patients don't know how much it costs. We tell them upfront. We also handle the entire journey of the patient end to end, which makes it more convenient…We are almost 45 per cent cheaper compared to larger corporate hospitals," Singh claimed.

According to Singh, patients have 21 points of contact from start to finish at Pristyn – which include a host of checks and balances, largely driven by technology. "The patients have to deal with just one care coordinator who guides them through the whole process," he explained. The company has 700 such care coordinators in total.

"We are surgery specialists; we are not physicians. Most of our patients come to us with a prescription or second opinion…Emergencies take place, but we are equipped to handle them. Hence, the number of fatalities is so low. We wish it were lower, but we are operating in a field where there is a risk of that happening," Singh said.

With big-name backers such as Tiger Global and Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia India), the company has, to date, raised $177 million in funding. To meet its growth targets, the healthtech unicorn is focusing on improving its margins while increasing scale.

"A business, by design, should be focused on growth and profitability. At Pristyn, we are not Ebitda positive yet, but for every surgery, we generate cash. We have raised about $180 million to date, and of this, almost 40 per cent is still in the bank," Singh said.

The company has, however, also drawn criticism as a consequence of its push for profits and growth.

"Some of the most profitable companies operate in the healthcare space. If we are running a business, the aim is to turn a profit. While the business is to provide care, we are a for-profit organisation, and there is nothing wrong with that," Singh added.

The healthtech unicorn has also reportedly been facing an attrition problem among its employees.

Singh categorises the company's 1,800 employees into two categories. "Around 1,200 of them are frontliners. The rest are non-frontliners, out of which 100 have been here for more than four years. There are around 300 people who have completed more than two years at Pristyn," he said.

"We work very hard. We aim to be one of the biggest healthcare companies in the world. The current attrition rate of 33 per cent is not likely to be lower than what it is now," he said.

For non-frontliners, Singh says that the attrition rate is 33-34 per cent. However, this figure is much higher for their counterparts.

"Frontliner attrition is very hard to control since we do not have a career path for them…A majority of them usually work here for two years and leave," he added.