Ltd said it raised $90 million from a clutch of investors led by China’s Tencent to increase its lead over local rivals and accelerate its worldwide expansion.
Advertisement
This development comes a few months after Practo closed US$30 million in Series B funding from Sequoia India and Matrix Partners, bringing Practo’s total funds raised to US$125 million (which includes its seed and angel round).
The Series C round also saw participation from Sofina, Altimeter Capital, Matrix Partners, Sequoia Capital Global Equities and Yuri Milner. “We hardly used any of those capital”. Recently, Practo acquired product outsourcing firm Genii Technologies Pvt Ltd for its capabilities in building bespoke e-commerce portals and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platforms.
Practo wants to be for healthcare what LinkedIn Corp.is to networking for professionals and Facebook Inc.is to social networking, CEO Shashank N.D. told reporters Thursday in Bangalore, where he announced the funding. It derives its top-line from Practo Ray, which is sold to doctors.
Chinese online giant Tencent has made its debut in India by leading a Rs 573-crore ($90-million) investment round in Practo, an Internet-based service to schedule appointments with doctors. Practo will also use the money to launch new products.
Advertisement
Other prominent companies in the doctor discovery and practice management segment in India are Lybrate, Ziffi, Qikwell and HelpingDoc. However, he declined to share further details of the meeting. The physicist-turned-investor has backed the seven-year-old company with around $5 million, making this one of his biggest personal investments. “Our global partners will give us the edge to continue building global healthcare products that our users love”.
