Practo raises $55 mn in Series D round, forays into health insurance aggregation

Digital healthcare platform Practo has raised $55 million in Series D funding led by existing investor China's Tencent.

Practo Technologies Pvt Ltd, which runs a doctor-appointment site and offers an ad platform to clinics, hospitals and diagnostic centres, also saw participation from three new investors—Russian venture capital (VC) firm ru-Net, Japan's Recruit Holdings' investment arm RSI Fund and US-based Thrive Capital.

Existing investors Sequoia Capital, Matrix Partners, Capital G (Google Capital), Altimeter Capital and Sofina also participated in the round, Shashank ND, founder and CEO, Practo, said at a press briefing.

In a major development, Shashank also announced the company's entry into health insurance aggregation.

Practo will compete with the likes of PolicyBazaar and Coverfox in the space.

With this fund infusion, Practo will further build an integrated healthcare platform and expand international operations, Shashank said.

Practo currently has a presence in the Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brazil, apart from India. It currently does close to 45 million appointments annually, and has more than 100,000 doctors on board, he told reporters.

Tencent had led Practo's Series C round of $90-million funding in 2015, in which ace investor Yuri Milner also participated.

"Practo has made impressive progress expanding its platform to cover more and more healthcare needs of consumers and providers," said Hongwei Chen, executive director of investment and M&A at Tencent, in a press statement.

The founder said the latest funding round takes the total amount Practo has raised externally to $179 million, and Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore are its biggest markets, in that order.

Practo, founded in 2008, has 1500 employees.

Shashank also clarified that there has been "no partial or full exit by any existing investor."

To a question on demonetisation's effect on the business, he said, "We did get hit by it. There was a 10-15% dip in the number of consumers (in November.) But business became normal in December."

Since Practo is on expansion mode, it is yet to turn a profit. Losses have grown five-fold, from Rs 12.9 crore in FY15 to Rs 64.6 crore in FY16, according to filings with the Registrar of Companies.