Practo buys Insta Health for $12M

Practo Technologies Pvt Ltd, a web-based clinic management software developer, has acquired hospital information management solution provider Insta Health Solutions Pvt Ltd for $12 million (Rs 76 crore) in a cash and equity deal.

Founded by former chief technology officer at Wipro, Ramesh Emani in 2008, Insta Health provides software solutions to hospitals, clinics, labs and diagnostic chains to digitise and manage operational, financial and clinical needs along with electronic medical records (EMR).

Prior to founding Insta Health, Emani was president of telecom and product engineering solutions at Wipro. He holds a master's degree in computer science from IIT, Kanpur.

The deal will see 100 employees of Insta Health join Practo. However, Insta Health will operate as a separate division and will continue to be led by Emani, the company said.

"This is the third of several acquisitions we have been evaluating as we continue our mission to help simplify and digitise healthcare around the world," said Shashank ND, founder and CEO at Practo.

Insta Health is used by clinics, hospitals and diagnostic labs for automating their clinical, operational and financial processes such as scheduling, registration, out-patient and in-patient management, billing, EMR, ward and bed management, diagnostics, advanced insurance and lab equipment integration, operation theatre, pharmacy and inventory management, and specialty modules like dental, dialysis, IVF etc.

Its software solutions are being used by hospitals across 15 countries in Southeast Asia, Middle East and Africa. Cloudnine Hospitals, Deepam Hospital, MyDentist in India, DaVita in India & Malaysia, Skyline Hospital in Manila, NMC Group of hospitals in UAE, and Karen Hospital in Kenya etc are some of its clients.

"We chose Practo as we felt we can together offer superior, comprehensive and integrated solutions for all participants in the healthcare ecosystem across patients, doctors and healthcare providers," said Emani.

Mumbai Angels-backed Insta Health had previously raised funds from Inventus Capital Partners and a clutch of HNIs.

The acquisition has also resulted in a multi-bagger cash exit for Inventus Capital, Tholons Capital, among others, according to Rajiv Dadlani, deal lead at Mumbai Angels.

The deal gives Mumbai Angels and other investors a full-cash exit with a multiple of 4.22 times on their capital.

Founded in 2008 by Shashank and Abhinav Lal, Practo offers services like helping patients find relevant doctors online, compare them and schedule appointments. It also sells PractoRay under a SaaS model for primary clinics, which enables doctors to schedule and manage patient records. Practo already lists over 8,000 hospitals on its platform and will expand this to over 20,000 by end of this year. Recently, it launched a new feature that allows users to find diagnostic labs in their vicinity.

It competes with the likes of Lybrate, HelpingDoc, Praxify and AllizHealth.

This is Practo's third acquisition this year. In April this year, Practo had acquired NCR-based FithoWellness, a web and app-based fitness management platform for an undisclosed amount.  In July, it acquired product outsourcing firm Genii Technologies Pvt Ltd for its capabilities in building bespoke e-commerce portals and Software-as-a-Service platforms.

Earlier this month, the company had raised $90 million in Series C funding led by Chinese media and technology conglomerate Tencent Holdings Pvt Ltd.

Practo had raised $30 million in Series B round from Sequoia India and Matrix Partners in February this year. Three years ago, it had raised $4.6 million from Sequoia Capital in Series A funding.