Chennai based LifeCell, India's first and largest stem cell bank, has recently announced its remarkable surge in its community banking inventory by clocking over 50,000 consented and qualified donor stem cell units. 

This inventory will help in overcoming the search burden for finding matching stem cells when needed, by enabling a 97% probability of finding HLA matching stem cell unit on a match from the community inventory. 

Stem cell transplantation is being considered as probably the only treatment option for a wide array of blood disorders. Hence this milestone further strengthens LifeCell’s community banking as India’s largest preserved inventory of cord blood stem cells that act as a closed donor group for the families that have preserved their baby's umbilical cord blood stem cells at birth.

In 2013, LifeCell got an investment of Rs 35 crore from Helion Venture Partners, an India-focused venture fund, to support its plans of increasing market penetration of stem cell banking in India.

With a turnover of Rs 126 crore (noted in the year 2017), LifeCell has a 60% share in the Indian market. 

Reports have indicated that the stem cell therapy or global regenerative medicine market was worth $28 billion in 2018 and will grow to over $81 billion by 2023, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23.3% during this period. 

To date India has taken several initiatives to promote developments in this field. Pertaining to stem cells, the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) has invested in basic stem cell research since 2001, and currently, over 40 institutions, hospitals and industries in our country are actively involved in the research. The Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine (inStem) was also opened in the year 2009, which is an independent research institute in this field.