How Orange Health Labs is trying to become the Zepto of blood tests

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Bengaluru: For Bengaluru-based techie Sumukh S, blood tests used to be a transactional matter. He would compare prices across apps, check availability and book whichever lab seemed cheapest or quickest that day. That changed about two years ago, after a friend recommended Orange Health Labs.

Since then, he says, the app has become his default option, because of its agility. “I’ve had phlebotomists arrive within half an hour [to draw blood],” he told Mint. The reports also came in quickly.

“The entire thing gets done within half a day.”That promise of speed sits at the heart of Orange Health’s ambition. The Bengaluru-headquartered upstart is trying to turn diagnostics into an on-demand consumer service. It promises home sample collection in under 60 minutes and report delivery within six hours.But for all that, Orange Health still has a long way to go.

While its overall revenue figure is creditable, it is still a drop in the ocean for Dr Lal PathLabs, which recorded ₹2,763 crore revenue in FY26, up 12% from ₹2,461 crore in FY25. As for samples, the Gurugram-headquartered company collected 86 million in FY25, according to its annual report, or around 7.1 million a month.Well begun is not quite half done in this case.Orange Health Labs was conceived inside health-tech platform Practo, where co-founders Tarun Bhambra and Dhruv Gupta worked together for nearly four years.Bhambra had earlier worked at ITC Limited as an operations manager, spent time at McKinsey & Company and later invested in healthcare startups. Gupta, meanwhile, had already built and exited multiple companies, including social platform DesiMartini, which was acquired by HT Media, and eyewear platform GKB Online.