Practo evolving to become India's largest integrated healthcare firm: CEO

Adoption of digital healthcare will increase in next 4-5 years in India's $150 billion healthcare market and Practo will play a leading role in the transition

Practo, which started as a software-as-a-service start-up 13 years ago, is evolving into an integrated healthcare company. It has created a health ecosystem by connecting patients, doctors, pharmacies, diagnostics, clinics and hospitals.

“It is equipped for the range of interactions patients have with the healthcare system. Practo is building for the entire value chain, by focusing heavily on the quality of interactions and consultations,” Chief Executive Officer Shashank N D said in an interview. Shashank co-founded the firm with Abhinav Lal in 2008.

The adoption of digital healthcare will increase in the next four-five years in India’s $150-billion healthcare market, and Practo aims to play a leading role in the transition, Shashank said.

Backed by investors such as Sequoia and Tencent, the firm now has about 300 million unique users, and is present in over 200 cities in India, and 20 other countries. There are over 100,000 doctors on the platform and about 76,000 hospitals and clinics.

Practo aims to expand its presence from 16,000 pin codes in India to 25,000 this year, which includes making significant headway into corporate health plans.

The pandemic led to a surge in consumers using virtual visits. “The use of virtual visits skyrocketed, and that also made us reflect how the doctor-patient ratio in India can be worked out well with telehealth (1:1800) - making everyone so much more efficient,” Shashand said. Practo observed over 67 per cent year-on-year (YoY) growth in telehealth. More than 50 per cent of telehealth queries were from beyond tier-2 and tier-3 cities.

“We’ve grown 125 per cent since last year, and are well placed to grow at over 100 per cent year-on-year over the next two years,” Shashank said.

The Bengaluru-based firm has grown rapidly to serve over 20 million patients every month and over 100,000 healthcare providers. Last year alone, Practo helped 180 million people with healthcare needs.

The firm’s hospital information management system (HIMS) business, Insta, which largely operates in the Middle East and other international markets, has trebled post-acquisition in 2015.

Launched last year, Practo Care Surgery (PCS) provides secondary healthcare to patients. The service offers a range of pre- and post-surgery services across 40 procedures.

“With PCS, we’re set to tap into the $12 billion secondary care market; eying 5 per cent market share in the next 5 years,” said Shashank.

About 20 million surgeries take place in India every year. Almost 80 per cent fall under secondary care. Practo also plans to facilitate Rs 1,000 crore worth of healthcare financing, including across tier-2, -3 cities, over the next three years.

Practo plans to take its PCS service, present across 75 clinics in 30 cities, to 100 cities in 6-12 months, by scaling it up to 500 clinics, and increasing the number of hospital partners from 150 to over 500 by the end of 2022.

Asked about the company's initial public offering (IPO) plans, Shashank said if the firm strongly feels that an IPO can aid its growth at any point, it will definitely go for it. “Say in the next 12-24 months. And we are confident of being received well because of the strong foundation built over the years.” While the firm has continued to raise capital every year, it has refrained from announcing each one of them, he said.

Shashank said Practo plans to go deeper into tier-2, -3 cities, and the next three-four years will be crucial to strengthen the company’s position as the largest integrated healthcare company in India.