Orios Venture invests $2.4M in online wellness services booking platform Ziffi

Mumbai-based DocSuggest Healthcare Services Pvt Ltd, the company behind Ziffi.com, an online booking platform for beauty salons, doctors and health tests, has raised Rs 15 crore ($2.4 million) in its Series A round of funding from Orios Venture Partners, a $50 million VC fund floated by angel investor Rehan Yar Khan.

The company will use the capital to expand its network of service providers, strengthen technology interface, enhance design and initiate marketing and brand building campaigns.

"The funding will be deployed to expand the establishment across operating cities so as to provide customers a convenient and simplified platform to book at their favourite salon or with their favourite doctor," said Shantanu Jha, co-founder of Ziffi.

The company was founded in 2009 by a team of IIT Bombay and IIT Kharagpur alumni - Jha, Keerthi Kiran Chennupati, Anshuman Pandey and Pushkar Soni. Ziffi is search and booking service for health and personal care. Earlier known as DocSuggest, the company rebranded itself into Ziffi.

It claims the platform has a network of over 15,000 doctors, 5,000 hospitals, clinics and labs. Ziffi.com recently expanded into salon and spa vertical. It also says the platform has received over 2.5 lakh appointments and has a registered user base of over 1.2 million users across Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Bangalore and Hyderabad. The company currently employs over 40 people across the four cities.

Earlier, the firm had raised close to Rs 5 crore in angel funding from Google India chief Rajan Anandan and Mumbai Angels member Taher Khorakiwala in April 2013.

"The online health, wellness and personal care category is a very large and exciting category given its high volume, usage and frequency. Every second month, customers need to get haircuts, beauty treatments, doctor visits and health checkups wherein making appointments on the phone is a slow and tedious process," said Khan.

"We estimate that there are currently 3 million people at the technology adoption cycle in India ready to use such a service and by 2020 this number will swell close to 100 million people. We are impressed by the company's vision and the incredible work they have done so far and we are delighted to back them in their next phase of growth," he added.