Focus will now be on the enterprise space, says Practo's CEO ND Shashank

Healthcare tech startup Practo Technologies Pvt Ltd is on its way to become one of India's first healthcare unicorns. With the launch of its operations in Brazil, Practo is currently present in 15 countries. In India, Practo hopes to expand its operations to 100 cities from 35 at present by the end of this year. In an interview with Techcircle.in, ND Shashank, CEO of Practo talks about its acquisition targets, new revenue streams, and its entry into new markets. Edited excerpts:

Which of your products bring in the maximum revenue?

Our products are primarily free for the consumers and it is the enterprises which pay for our products. So it is the hospitals, clinics and small and medium enterprises (SMBs) which drive most of our revenue through our SaaS based products. We have about ten of thousands of paying customers currently which fuel and drive Practo.

Have you devised any new revenue streams?

Our strategy has always been clear that our consumer services will always remain free, because that leads to more adoption. Enterprises are the ones around which we will be building our revenue model.

Increased healthcare content and patient records have now led to more ordering of medicines on our platform. This is something that is clearly working for us as a new revenue source. In the next few quarters, we believe ordering of medicines as a business will grow very fast.

Likewise, our newest offering – Practo Consult – has really taken off where consumers are changing their behaviour before they visit a doctor. Here doctors answer questions from patients for free. We will soon launch other services that will help us generate revenue from this business. E-consultation and ordering of medicines are two services where consumers will pay.

What is your strategy when it comes to capturing tier 2 and tier 3 markets?

We have seen huge adoption even in tier 2 and tier 3 cities, among consumers as well as enterprises. For instance, we have a product called Practo Tab, a hardware device that we sell to doctors and the response has been terrific. All the doctors on our network are picking up the hardware along with our software. It replaces the entire desktop for a doctor. The tier 2 and tier 3 centres are finding this product even more useful.

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