Indian start-ups tie up with global biggies to expand

Health care start-up Practo ties up with Uber; OYO Rooms joins hands with Thomas Cook

Start-ups in India are taking a partnership route with larger companies to expand their customer base, locally and abroad.

On Monday, Practo, a health care start-up that helps patients fix appointments with doctors, tied up with Uber, the global app-based taxi aggregator. This would enable people to book a Uber to take them to a clinic or hospital.

And, OYO Rooms, an aggregator for budget hotels in India, is collaborating with Thomas Cook, the travel agency, opening rooms in 3,200 hotels at 140 cities for the latter's customers

“It is a good thing that start-ups are focusing on partnership to build scale. What Practo and OYO are doing is great,” said Debabrat Mishra, director at Hay Group, a management consultancy. Hay is helping about 100 start-ups to scale up their business and emphasise on partnerships than building infrastructure and business on their own.

Uber and Practo are launching the joint service that enables Practo consumers to get access to Uber cars on their app in India, Indonesia, Philippines and Singapore. Once consumers hail the app, the driver gets the destination pre-filled on his app. The next phase of integration will involve notifying the user to request for an Uber an hour prior to the appointment. Practo said the app will give an estimate of the time for Uber cars to arrive, the destination and estimated fare.

“We work relentlessly towards providing a simplified health care experience that reduces consumer stress and anxiety at every level. We realised that transportation issues often bring additional stress to a doctor’s visit – having to drive through traffic, then hunt for parking, while you or your loved one is sitting in the car, feeling ill, a terrible experience,” said Shashank ND, founder and chief executive of Practo. “There are also many patients who might not be able to drive themselves to a doctor at all. Our goal with this partnership is to completely remove this anxiety.”

The Thomas Cook and OYO partnership will offer leisure and business travellers a standardised stay experience (AC rooms, complimentary breakfast and Wi-Fi with 24x7 customer service support), at a price.

“Through this partnership, we hope to bring to (clients) a hotel experience which is predictable, affordable and easily accessible,” said Kavikrut, chief growth officer at OYO. Thomas Cook and OYO did an experimental project before the tie-up.

It got a positive response from clients across the business and leisure segments.

“Domestic Indian travellers are demanding better value in the form of good quality, conveniently located, standardised accommodation. Access to this is in woefully short supply. said Abraham Alapatt, head of marketing and service quality at Thomas Cook India. Data also indicates the number of middle class Indian households is expected to grow exponentially, from 8.8 million in 2015 to 43.6 mn in 2025. Our partnership with OYO offers us a wonderful platform to tap this need and opportunity,” said Abraham Alapatt, head of marketing and service quality at Thomas Cook India.