Ayu Health Hospitals, a platform backed by Nandan Nilekani‘s Fundamentum Partnership, is targeting a network of more than 170 hospitals by the end of 2023, followed by entering more geographies, adding new services and investing in technology. Founded in 2019 by tech entrepreneurs Himesh Joshi, Arjit Gupta and Karan Gupta, Ayu Health is trying to be the Oyo of the healthcare industry, helping small standalone hospitals to improve their customer experience, raise patient footfalls, bring transparency to pricing, build brand and in procurement and patient financing. The company plans to provide hiring services as well.

In April last year, Ayu Health raised $27 million in its Series-B funding round, led by Fundamentum Partnership, an early-stage growth fund founded by Nilekani and Sanjeev Aggarwal, along with participation from 57 Stars, Capier Investments and angel investors including Ashish Gupta, Khadim Batti and Vara Kumar. Existing investors Stellaris Venture Partners, Vertex Ventures and Alteria Capital also took part. It had raised $6.3 million from Vertex Ventures and Stellaris Venture Partners in September 2021.

Ayu Health cofounder Joshi, who is also its chief executive, told ET that many standalone hospitals of 50-200 bed capacity, promoted by individual doctors, were struggling to compete with the larger rivals on customer experience, marketing, branding, procurement and pricing.

“We realised an opportunity for us to partner with these individual doctor-owned hospitals, where we will co-brand it, will use the Ayu Health brand, and start driving more patients to that hospital using our proprietary technology platform,” he said.