Y-Combinator-backed buy now pay later startup BharatX announced on Wednesday its acquisition of healthcare fintech startup Zenifi to enter the medical loans segment in India. The deal amount was not disclosed. Zenifi co-founder and CEO Padam Kataria will join BharatX as the Head of Business – Healthcare to build the company’s healthcare lending business.

“By being a part of BharatX, Zenifi team can leverage the pre-existing lending platform and realise better economics. And this acquisition will allow BharatX to break into the healthcare sector, a sector ripe for disruption and one of the largest sectors needing credit after its disruptive success in online shopping credit solutions,” the company said.

BharatX co-founder and CEO Mehul Jindal commented on the acquisition, stating, “Healthcare sector in India faces a significant challenge when it comes to paying for medical services. This becomes a problem especially during emergencies. India continues to spend the largest amount for accessing healthcare through their own pockets, making availing medical facilities an expensive proposition.”

BharatX currently offers financing options for over 125 brands and has claimed a 33x growth in the past five quarters, with over $4.7 million raised in funding. The company has disbursed loans to over 200,000 users so far.

“We have firsthand experience of making medical lending easy and accessible and with BharatX’s well-established credit as a service, the synergies between the two companies will ensure that we can accelerate the speed with which we capture the market,” said Padam Kataria, CEO of Zenifi.

According to a Bain & Company report from March this year, the Indian healthcare market was valued at around $180 billion in FY2023 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of about 12 per cent, reaching approximately $320 billion by FY2028. The medtech segment, valued at around $11 billion, is dominated by imports, which account for 75 to 80 per cent of the market.