Flipkart founders are taking risky bets

Early stage start up companies struggling to raise funds in health care sector is the next bait for Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal. The Flipkart co founders have recently invested Pandorum Technologies, which deals in -print experimental-stage human liver tissues in a laboratory. Bansal duo are finalising another investment in a start up that makes implants.

Bansals taking the risk of investing in disruptive innovation make them a rare breed of investors, courageous enough to take risky bets.

"In India, core sectors like healthcare, education and supply chain will be disrupted (by emerging) technology... Those (startups) don't funding easily while consumer internet companies do," Binny Bansal told the ET.

His observation bears out in the numbers. Of the 30 early-stage capital-raising deals struck by healthcare startups since 2014, half were in the form of government grants, according to startup data tracker Tracxn. On the other hand, in the same period, 1,166 consumer internet startups managed to raise seed and angel funding.

Industry experts concede it's tough for such deep technology ventures to secure funding. "It is not very easy because you need to understand more of technology when you (want to invest in) deeptech healthcare and robotics," said Shanti Mohan, founder of Let'sVenture, one of India's largest funding platforms for startups.

For potential investors not familiar with such technology, it becomes difficult to grasp the end uses of the products these startups are developing.