Rural healthtech startup CureBay has acquired the pharmaceuticals distribution business of B2B (business-to-business) health marketplace Saveo, Priyadarshi Mohapatra, founder and chief executive of CureBay told Mint.
“The acquisition was strategic in nature for us and they bring their partnerships on the procurement side of running warehouse management and the serviceability of an order that is coming from rural India,” said Mohapatra.
While the company declined to comment on the financial details of the transaction, it said that it had not raised additional funding to finance the acquisition and that it was done through the company’s existing funds.
The acquisition brings Saveo’s 10,000 platform partners across Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu into CureBay’s network of 190 clinics.
Most of the integrations of Saveo’s pharma distribution business into CureBay have already been completed. “In a few of our markets, we are already hitting the market with the combined power of both the organizations and talent,” said Mohapatra.
India’s market is fragmented with multiple models, including remote patient monitoring, mobile hospitals and more. These markets are large due to the volume of patients, and not because of paying capacity.
Remote health monitoring was estimated at $255 million in 2025 by IMARC Group, and is expected to hit $1.3 billion, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 20.52% between 2026 and 2034.
Curebay competes with other rural healthcare startups like MedKart, iKure, Niramai, and Gramin Health. The company’s revenue at the end of FY25 stood at ₹682 million ( ₹68.2 crore) and an exit annual run rate of ₹940 million ( ₹94 crore).
“With the rural ecosystem improving, more insurance coverage, better 5G and telecom network and rising incomes, there is an opportunity to create an economically viable model,” said Bhanu Prakash Kalmath S.J., partner and healthcare industry leader at Grant Thornton Bharat. “Especially for those who can leverage tech – including remote monitoring, remote consultation, telehealth,” he added.
Supply edge
The acquisition is expected to accelerate CureBay’s growth, improve profitability and expand its customer base.
By leveraging Saveo’s network, the startup has strengthened its medicine supply chain and further integrated pharmacies into its ecosystem. “We’re trying to be a full-stack platform, from doctor diagnostics, to medicines and tertiary referrals,” Mohapatra said. “Medicine sits right at the centre.”
The company charges its customers ₹100 for a consultation and also has a subscription service called Kavach, which retails at ₹499 per year—it includes unlimited doctor consultations, discounts on medicines and tests, and financial support for hospital stays.
“It’s an urban myth [that rural India can’t pay] because the moment we say rural India, people tend to generalize and broad-brush it, saying it’s bottom of the pyramid,” said Mohapatra. “It is not a problem of affordability. It is more a challenge of access to the right environment. They’re looking at value.”
Rural gap
Healthcare in rural India remains underpenetrated due to low public spending, regional disparities across states, low health insurance adoption and expensive private care.
The non-urban healthcare landscape has been challenging because of various reasons like the underpenetration of insurance, and the lack of adequate talent, Grant Thornton Bharat’s Kalmath pointed out. “We do see a slow but gradual shift. While private healthcare has largely been skewed towards urban metros, the mix will gradually change.”
At the same time, the government has been in the public healthcare ecosystem through the Ayushman Bharat Programme. Through the initiative, the government upgraded existing sub-centres and primary health centres to health and wellness centres to ensure they’re able to provide a broader spectrum of comprehensive primary healthcare services.
Expansion plans
CureBay currently operates in Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand—states with largely rural populations and relatively low population density. The company plans to expand into Bihar, eastern Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh over the next two years.
CureBay operates a ‘circle’ model, under which around 50 clinics are spread across four districts and function as an integrated network to serve rural populations. The company currently runs four such circles.
“The idea was to establish the playbook in a lower pop density and see how to make them profitable,” Mohapatra said. “When we go to higher population density areas, our speed to profitability becomes higher.”
CureBay’s circles typically take 18-20 months to break even. With expansion into denser markets, the company expects this timeline to reduce to 12-15 months.
Founded in 2022, about $35 million to date.
Between 2022 and 2024, it secured $13.5 million in a Series A round led by Elevar Equity. In May 2025, Bertelsmann India Investments and British International Investment invested $21 million in a Series B round.