Practo raises Series D funding of $55M led by Tencent

Practo today broke its year-long, self-imposed silence by announcing that it has raised Series D funding of $55 million. The total funding raised by Practo, including this round, is $179 million.

This round led my Tencent is Practo’s fourth round of funding. Three new investors joining the board will be ru-Net, RSI Fund (owned by Recruit Capital) and Thrive Capital. Other existing investors, including Sequoia Capital, Matrix Partners, Capital G (Google Capital), Altimeter Capital, and Sofina participated in this round.

Addressing the Press, Shashank ND, Founder and CEO, said:

In 2016, we were focussed on building the overall ecosystem with appointments, health records, Ray, Insta, diagnostic tests, and health records. This year, we are going to focus on all of this and enter the health insurance space.

Last year, Practo had expanded into the Latin American market by venturing into Brazil. Shashank added that they saw a 60 percent increase in appointment bookings internationally.

Currently, the maximum chunk of the revenue for Practo comes from their B2B segment, which doctors use. More than 20 percent of the revenue comes from the international markets.

Shashank also added that the startup saw 80 percent growth in appointment booking and 90 percent growth in patients coming on the platform. The team believes that they will break even in some parts of the international markets. Shashank added,

We may take our IPO in the international markets before India.

Practo saw losses of Rs 64 crores FY 2015. Speaking of the same, Shashank said that there is a huge opportunity to build a healthcare platform, which has taken in several investments.

Practo saw a 10 percent drop in patient visits and appointments after the demonetisation move, but Shashank added that by December things changed, and they were back on track. He said,

But we are currently focused on growth and monetisation. Our enterprise business is doing great and our increase in consumer base helps the enterprise side.

With health insurance added to its portfolio, Practo now competes with Sequoia-backed 1mg, Health Assure, and NetMeds among others.