Online healthcare platform Practo raises Rs 360 cr in Series D funding

A part of the new funds will be used to expand the company's services in South East Asia

Healthcare technology startup Practo has raised about Rs 360 crore ($55 million) in Series D round led by existing investors Tencent. The round also saw three new foreign investors including ru-Net based in Russia, Japanese based RSI Fund and New York-headquartered Thrive Capital joining in.

With this, the Bengaluru-based company has raised about $179 million in total. Practo, which had recently launched its first health insurance product, will utilise the funds to expand its offerings further in the health insurance segment, said Shashank ND, chief executive officer and co-founder, Practo. "This round will help us continue our geographic expansion. 2017 will be the year our integrated healthcare platform comes to life and we will partner with various service providers to build solutions with Practo," he added.

Other existing investors including Sequoia Capital, Matrix Partners, Capital G (formerly Google Capital), Altimeter Capital and Sofina also participated in the round.

"A full stack model in healthcare is very difficult to pull off, but Practo has built and rapidly scaled a full-stack solution that is rare to see globally," said Hongwei Chen, Executive Director of Investment and M&A at Tencent.

Practo added about 90 per cent more consumers on its platform in 2016, while the number of appointments grew by 80 per cent. On the enterprise side, it saw about 60 per cent increase in partners being onboard, including Max Healthcare, Manipal and Cloud9. About five million health records have been digitised last year, as part of Practo's Health Drive.

Practo has presence in about 15 countries, the latest being in Brazil. About 20 per cent of the current revenue comes from markets outside India. The company looks to improve their foothold in the existing markets, which includes regions in South East Asia and Latin America for consumer growth and West Asia for acquiring new enterprises. With the company quite aggressive in international markets, Shashank said they might look to go for IPO in international markets.

Going ahead, Practo looks to expand its health insurance offerings. "We will work based on an aggregator model with existing health insurance companies to deliver insurance," Shashank added.

The Rs 360-crore fund raise by Practo is the first major one in the current year in the Indian startup sector. Last year, health care startups were the third highest fund raisers at about $130 million, after financial and education technology firms.

With the current fund raise, Practo continues to be the largest health care technology startup in India, and is fast consolidating the segment with its equal focus on both consumer and enterprise businesses. The other players in the health care sector include Meena Ganesh-led Portea Medical, which provides at-home medical care and online pharmacist NetMeds.