Varun Sheth
CEO & Co-founder, Ketto
An estimated 80% of the Indian population lacks any form of health insurance, and with 63% of all medical emergency costs being met out-of-pocket, most families exhaust their entire savings accessing healthcare. At times, they are forced into abject poverty. This is where Ketto comes in. "Our constant endeavour is to bridge the affordability gap and make quality healthcare accessible to all," says Varun Sheth, CEO & co-founder, Ketto.
Ketto, short for ‘Key to Tomorrow', is a crowdfunding platform established on 15 August 2012. It has hosted over two lakh fundraisers and raised ~INR 1100 crore, helping over 50 million people in various capacities. In addition, the enterprise has facilitated 20,000+ campaigns based on medical needs and raised INR 200+ crore from 10L+ generous donors in the past year. These campaigns have enabled 15,000 transplants and critical surgeries.
"My journey in social impact began early. My experiences with NGOs led me to have a deep understanding of their functioning and challenges on a daily basis. I soon realised that the transparency gap between the donor, recipient and technology were major roadblocks in the funding process", says Sheth.
When Ketto began its journey, it was difficult to garner people's trust in online transactions. However, as a crowdfunding platform, it focused on building the right pillars of transparency and technology. This helped them increase the number of repeat donors to 70% as compared to 30% last year. Digitisation has played a pivotal role in Ketto's journey with people being open to online transactions. In the pandemic, Ketto raised over INR 115 crore through 11,000 fundraisers and supported more than 10 million people during the lockdown.
"We are witnessing a significant change in people's behaviour. People want to support causes they truly believe in. The transparency and the ease of online donation on Ketto, encourages people to bring social change to society," says Sheth
