Practo raises USD 30 mn for expansion in India and overseas

Healthcare start-up, Practo Technologies, which helps people search for doctors online, has raised USD 30 million (over Rs 185 crore) in a fresh round of funding to finance expansion in nearly 30 Indian cities and overseas markets by March 2016.
"We have raised USD 30 million in series B funding. Our existing investor Sequoia Capital led the round with participation from Matrix Partners," Practo Founder & CEO Shashank ND told PTI.
Matrix India Managing Director Avnish Bajaj will be joining Practo's Board of Directors, he added.
Currently, the company has presence in cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Pune in India apart from having footprints in Singapore and Philippines.

Commenting on the expansion plans, Shashank ND said: "We will be present in 35 cities in India and in several new countries in South East Asia and Middle East by March 2016."
The locations that the company is looking at in India are Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Nagpur, Jaipur and Coimbatore, among others, he added.

"Practo is revolutionising healthcare by enabling consumers to find the best doctors, book instant appointments and make better, more informed health decisions," Matrix India Co-Founder and MD Avnish Bajaj said.
Commenting on the development, Sequoia Capital Managing Director Shailendra Singh said: "From our first seed investment in Practo in 2011, the company has come a very long way.

Practo has now scaled to being the market leader in online healthcare in India, a category that has created multiple multi-billion dollar companies around the world, he added.
The USD 30 million series B funding is one of the largest investments into digital health globally and the largest for any Indian healthcare technology company, Practo said in a statement.
Every month, over one million users book 1,20,000 appointments via Practo Search, it added.
The company had earlier raised USD 4 million from Sequoia Capital in mid-2012.