How RED Health Is Breaking Barriers To Redefine Emergency Medical Response In India

Until recently, India had no equivalent of the 911 service, not even for medical emergencies. In the US, it is a unified number that one can call for any emergency assistance. However, closer to home, people mainly depend on traditional ambulance services, a fragmented market dominated by below-par operators who do not follow standardised regulatory or medical protocols. In addition, critical care in such situations can be severely impacted due to insufficient fleets, lack of in-transit equipment for patient stabilisation and the absence of qualified paramedics who can be life-savers. 

Consider this. When it comes to emergency medical services (EMS) in India, there is just one ambulance for around 65K people, with at least 30-40 minutes of wait period in traffic-gridlocked metros. Rural access can be more difficult due to poor infrastructure. As of June 2024, the number of ambulances under the National Ambulance Service (NAS) scheme included 15,283 basic life support (BLS) units, 3,918 patient transport vehicles and 3,044 advanced life support (ALS) vehicles.

Thankfully, this scenario is changing. During the stampede at the Maha Kumbh Mela earlier this year or last month’s (June 4, 2025) Bengaluru crowd crush at Royal Challengers’ IPL win celebrations, Hyderabad-based RED Health emerged as the first responder. Set up by Prabhdeep Singh, the decade-old venture runs a platform to enable a 24/7 rapid response to medical emergencies. It claims a network of 10K+ ambulances (air, train and on-road vehicles) across 550+ cities. Of these, 500 ambulances are owned by the company and the rest are managed by them.

Many of these are equipped with advanced life support systems and staffed with trained paramedics to ensure safe transit of critically ill patients. Calls are answered by clinically trained agents in less than two seconds, and vehicles are dispatched within five minutes, leading to faster response times. Apart from ambulance service and transit care, RED Health provides pre-hospital care and medically trained concierge services during recovery.

“When we came in, we aimed to operate as an asset-light platform, bringing together existing supply and demand. But we soon realised that the service market was fragmented, unregulated and below par, and we must dive in to build a full-stack ecosystem,” founder-CEO Prabhdeep Singh told Inc42. “So, we built our technology and network from scratch to set up India’s largest private ambulance system. We also invested in talent building and trained more than 4K paramedics.”

RED Health generates revenue through three primary streams: Corporate partnerships, hospital collaborations and B2C ambulance services. Its corporate partnerships involve subscription-based emergency care plans tailored for employees. The hospital collaboration model includes payments from healthcare facilities for patient referrals and per-patient billing for ambulance services. Additionally, it offers a pay-per-use ambulance service directly to the masses. The platform also capitalises on high-margin premium services such as air ambulances.

It has collaborated with more than 4K hospitals, including healthcare leaders Apollo Hospitals, Medanta, Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital and Fortis, among others. It has also partnered with 100+ corporate houses to ensure emergency care for more than a million employees through corporate health programmes.

The healthtech startup clocked INR 121 Cr in revenue for FY25, with projections to surpass INR 200 Cr in the current financial year, a 65.2% jump. Its growth trajectory is further bolstered by institutional funding worth $62 Mn.

What It Took To Build A Full-Service EMS Network

The story of RED Health began with a crisis that exposed India’s failing emergency response system. When Singh’s father had a medical emergency but did not get timely help, the harsh reality of India’s broken ambulance network became painfully clear. 

For Singh, an INSEAD and NMIMS alumnus with a background in healthcare and pharmaceuticals, it was not just a personal crisis but a systemic failure, a widening gap between the people in need and the timely availability of medical emergency services. Hence, the founder had to rethink the concept and build RED Health as a comprehensive solutions provider.

The transformation was sweeping. Apart from assembling a 10K+ fleet network (5% company-owned and the rest is managed), RED Health has developed a proprietary dispatch system tailored to India’s needs. “Our advanced auto-dispatch technology, AI-driven triage [enables risk assessments for prioritisation] and live tracking ensure that no time is lost,” Singh told Inc42.   

However, ‘Mission RED Health’ seeks to overhaul the entire emergency response ecosystem. The team works closely with hospitals to understand micro-level problems and streamline patient intake. It also ties up with companies to embed emergency medical care as a fundamental component of corporate responsibility. 

RED Health now services 70-75% of Blinkit’s emergency response operations through a white-label partnership with the quick-commerce platform. It deploys ambulances and medical teams while adhering to jointly developed protocols. This arrangement underlines a broader shift towards fast and reliable healthcare delivery models that align with people’s requirements.

How RED Health Meets Diverse Emergency Care Needs

In a country where EMS often arrives too late or not at all, RED Health has built a multi-layered ecosystem that addresses crisis, routine treatment and preventive care. “We go beyond speed [in ambulance service] and focus on providing pre-hospital care, telemedicine and allied services, ensuring prompt care at the right time,” said Singh. This comprehensive approach spreads across seven core offerings:

24/7 emergency response network: According to Singh, RED Health is the country’s biggest emergency response network, encompassing road, train and air ambulances. While its integrated call centres, run by trained professionals, respond within two seconds, its ambulances are equipped with 5G connectivity and serve as mobile ICUs. They carry ALS tools, are on live tracking and ensure real-time coordination with hospitals so that paramedics can begin treatment during transit. 

Flash app for on-demand health services: The B2C app offers rapid, on-demand medical assistance, extending beyond emergency care. Currently operational in Hyderabad, with plans to operate in Bengaluru, the app enables users to request nursing services within 10 minutes, an ambulance in eight minutes, or specialised homecare such as wound dressing or elder care within 20 to 30 minutes. 

SALUS EMS: It connects patients, hospitals and paramedics seamlessly, ensuring faster decision-making and real-time coordination. 

On-site health centres and clinics for employees: RED Health offers a plug-and-play model for OHCs and clinics located within or near workplaces and equipped with on-call doctors, trained paramedics, advanced medical equipment and round-the-clock access to emergency services, including ambulances. 

RED Family Protect: The platform has launched this direct-to-consumer service to ensure rapid emergency response for effective senior care. This service is specifically designed for families, including NRIs, who are away from their homes and elderly family members. Under this programme, RED Health offers a 24/7 dedicated helpline, a JCI-accredited ambulance arriving within 15 minutes, quick transfer to top hospitals during the golden hour, pre-hospitalisation care by trained paramedics, real-time updates to families and local contacts and a medically trained concierge for recovery support. 

Redversity for healthcare education: The platform runs its academies under this brand to provide standardised pre-hospital care training. This initiative helps healthcare professionals acquire skills and expertise to address critical gaps in the EMS sector.

RED Asth: RED Health’s end-of-life services include documentation with legal and regulatory compliance, handling and hearse logistics, ritual coordination and funeral management. 

RED Health’s Roadmap For Scaling Healthcare Operations

According to an IMARC report, the ambulance services market in India, valued at $5.2 Bn in 2024, is poised for steady growth and estimated to reach $9.7 Bn by 2033, at a CAGR of 6.4%. This opens up new growth opportunities for the likes of RED Health, whose core operations centre on tech-enabled ambulance services.   

Of course, players like Medulance, Zenzo and Dial 4242 operate in the same space and focus on rapid response to medical emergencies. However, RED Health stands apart due to its unparalleled pan-India presence. From Amritsar to Kollam, and Siliguri to Guwahati, it is expanding rapidly, giving it a unique geographical advantage and visibility. According to Singh, it makes the company the first responder to most incidents, be it the Kumbh Mela crisis, the Pahalgam massacre, or the recent Air-India crash in Ahmedabad.

More importantly, it has a full-stack approach to ambulance services, EMS operations and allied healthcare solutions. It is executed through proprietary technology, trained paramedics and a fast-growing ‘care’ network built across hospitals, corporate houses and on-demand health services accessed via its Flash app and OHCs. This in-depth and on-ground support and services give it an edge over its competitors. In fact, RED Health aims to explore this further as it gears up for the next phase of strategic growth, boosted by substantial funding.

The platform has clear objectives in the near term: strengthen partnerships with hospitals and corporate clients, and dive deep into advanced technology, including AI-driven predictive healthcare solutions. However, its long-term vision is expansive — global growth, coupled with an ‘integrated ecosystem’ approach incorporating air ambulances, community training and preventive care. 

And therein lies the real challenge. For now, RED Health has positioned itself as a formidable player, given its achievements. But the next few years will test whether its model can maintain the service edge and reliability at scale, especially when it expands globally. In an industry as complex as emergency care, there is little room for complacency.