Virtual homeopathy clinic Welcome Cure raises $6M

Welcome Cure Pvt. Ltd, which runs an online healthcare platform providing consultation, diagnosis and treatment using homeopathy, has raised $6 million (Rs 39 crore) in its pre-Series A funding round, according to a press statement.

Although the names of the investors were not disclosed, media house Bennett, Coleman and Co. Ltd. (BCCL) is learnt to have committed $5 million in an ad-for-equity style transaction, a source told VCCircle.

Welcome Cure spokesperson declined to comment on the names of the investors while an email sent to Brand Capital, the private investment unit of BCCL went unanswered.

The firm separately said the capital will be used for expanding the health care portal and developing marketing strategies.

The company was co-founded in 2014 by Jawahar J Shah and Punit Desai. Shah is a homeopathic practitioner, technocrat, educationalist and academician with nearly four decades of experience in the alternative medicine field. Desai is a serial entrepreneur, and has previously worked with Konark Group.

Mumbai-based Welcome Cure is focused on alternative medicine and provides consultation services through video chat, live chat, Skype, telephonic and email interactions with physicians.

It offers services through a subscription-based revenue model. Hompath, a Mumbai-based homeopathic database software, powers its backend.

"In a short span of time, we have received an overwhelming response from our users," Desai said. He claimed the firm has a renewal rate of close to 69 per cent for its subscribers.

Other ventures that connect patients to doctors online include Lybrate and MeraDoctor. However, these cater to the mainstream or allopathic therapy stream.

In the homeopathy related space, recently Bright Lifecare Pvt Ltd, which owns and operates online drug marketplace 1mg, acquired homeopathy medicines platform homeobuy and rebranded it as 1mgAyush.

For BCCL, this adds to a growing list of over two dozen healthcare, wellness and pharma companies it has backed. Interestingly, it also counts another venture Positive Homeopathy, which offers similar services as Welcome Cure, as a portfolio firm.