Get to know Siddharth, our Chief Finance Officer
We spoke to Medbelle's Chief Finance Officer about how to stand out in the competitive world of tech start-ups, and recent trends in health tech funding and innovation
Written by PR & Communications Manager, Mr. Jack Cutforth
Published: Friday 28 October 2022
The tech start-up world is a competitive one. How does Medbelle stand out from the crowd?
Medbelle is unique in its mission as it attempts to digitalise a bureaucratic behemoth: secondary healthcare. Interestingly, there are not a lot of companies in the world doing this right now at the scale of Medbelle, so we are definitely pioneers within this space. Whilst there are companies that truly improve the patient experience in hospitals, Medbelle is unique in attempting to deliver consistently superior outcomes at lower average costs to the healthcare system. We are not there yet, but we continue to make significant strides towards this goal.
What was it about Medbelle that attracted you to your current role?
Having worked in investment banking previously, I was resolute in choosing a career where I am able to make more of a tangible impact towards a specific mission. Medbelle was able to offer this to me, and not in some trivial capacity but in bucket-loads.
As a student of economics, I recognise the unsustainable nature of healthcare spending around the world today, and with aging populations, this is expected to rise even further. The world needs a Medbelle.
"Medbelle is unique in attempting to deliver consistently superior outcomes at lower average costs to the healthcare system."
What are the biggest challenges you face and how do you overcome them?
The biggest challenge I have faced is effectively communicating what Medbelle does and its potential impact within healthcare. Why? Healthcare is complicated and within that, secondary care is even more complicated. It is very easy to get lost in a technicality or digress from the main point.
As a result of this, we embarked on an introspection exercise which resulted in a simplification of Medbelle’s mission by consolidating it into three very simple to understand and measurable criteria, which are:
- Patients feel cared for
- Delivering superior medical results
- Delivering superior patient experience and medical results at a lower cost to the patient, insurer and society as a whole
During your career, have you noticed more investors looking to make a positive difference by funding socially conscious businesses?
There has definitely been a proliferation of funds looking to invest in socially conscious businesses, and the adoption of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) metrics within the investment criteria has contributed towards this trend. Whilst ESG itself remains problematic in its effectiveness, the awareness and the wherewithal to do something about it has definitely increased.
What are some recent trends you have spotted in health tech funding and innovation?
Digitalisation within healthcare lagged other industries due to its bureaucratic nature and a network of stakeholders who stood to lose out in the event of significant change. Whilst new technologies were being adopted in various pockets; systemic solutions were lacking. The pandemic, however, has turbocharged the adoption of digital solutions, and along with it has come significant health tech funding. I often like to say that what the financial crisis of 2008 did for Fintech, the pandemic is currently doing for Healthtech. I expect this to be the decade where we shall see rapid advances within this space.
How is Medbelle different from other businesses you have worked for?
It’s difficult to compare my previous work experience within investment banking with Medbelle as they are entirely different businesses. One major difference, however, which I have enjoyed is that at Medbelle, you turn up to work every day making incremental progress towards the same mission whilst back in the day, I would jump from project to project for different companies with different objectives and no sense of belonging. There are a lot more synergies between my day-to-day responsibilities than I had in the past.
