As of 2021, the pediatric healthcare market was valued at $11.81 billion and is expected to reach a high of $16.92 billion by 2029, growing at a CAGR of 4.6%. Ashish Meena, co-founder of Babynama, told Entrackr, “Despite this huge market there is a huge lack of companies or platforms that offer immediate help or advice to parents.”
Having experienced the troubles of being first time parents, duo Dr Sumitra and Ashish Meena noticed the lack of an immediate helping hand for others going through the same journey. Ashish mentioned how the journey was a bit easier for them as Dr Sumitra was a pediatrician, but realized the situation would have been different if not for her.
The couple also noticed how most new parents were on this journey alone as a result of moving to the cities and being away from their families. Previously the raising of a child was work distributed among parents and grandparents who were already experienced with the process. However, the situation has changed in the modern day, the responsibility is solely in the hands of the parents and can be a tough one.
The duo came up with the idea for Babynama taking into consideration not just their difficulties but what is the experience of many new parents in metropolitan cities. The Delhi-based startup is a digital platform that provides subscription-based pediatric care services to new parents. It enables parents to get answers to any questions they have about their child’s health from trusted pediatricians within a short span of 15 minutes via WhatsApp. Â
Depending on a subscription plan, parents also have access to unlimited pediatric consultations, emergency support, monthly baby growth tracking, lactation, nutrition and weaning guidance, personalized care plans, gynecology and psychology support, and access to all workshops conducted by the platform.
With the belief that taking care of the mother is as important as taking care of the baby, the platform has psychologists and peer groups with parents to provide them with equal support as the baby received.
CEO and co-founder of Babynama, Dr Sumitra said, “After I had my baby, I went through postpartum depression. But I was fortunate enough to understand it early and reached out for professional help. A lot of mothers who have postpartum depression do not realize what they are going through. This is why we introduced psychologists and peer groups on our platform.”
So far the company has a medical team of over 45 experts, pediatricians, lactation experts, nutritionists, gynecologists, and psychologists. It has seen around 40,000 total users with 2,000 of it being paid users who have taken up a subscription plan.
The pediatric care platform is also developing a mobile app which leverages AI and machine learning algorithms to automate responses to common questions, trained on data provided by our trusted pediatricians. Additionally, the app will also enable milestone tracking and holistic development of the child.
Dr Sumitra added, “Because of early intervention we have been able to diagnose and help babies who have shown signs of autism and other learning disabilities.” Â
Having started operations last July, the platform is accessible all over the country and sees a majority of its users in tier 1 and 2 cities.
Babynama plans to add in the category of children between the ages of 3-5 as a next step. It also wants to expand its services to tier 3 cities making pediatric care available to a majority of the people.
Apart from India, the platform also sees users, mainly NRIs, from countries like UAE, Singapore, US, Australia, Germany, and Canada.
