Paytm Backs AI And Big Data Driven Healthtech Startup QorQL

Noida-based online healthcare startup QorQL has secured an undisclosed amount of funding from ecommerce and payments platform Paytm.

Commenting on the investment, Sudhanshu Gupta, Vice President, Paytm said, “There is a need in the country for quality care at affordable costs and the sector largely works on an acute shortage of information both on the consumer side and on the side of healthcare professionals. Hence, there is a need of real time data collection and of improving the overall care process with advanced analytics and AI.”

QorQL was launched in 2015 by Sanjay Singh and Dr. Shalini Singh. It deploys artificial intelligence and big data to offer doctors and patients access to clinical data for better management of their health. It basically offers two solutions: Qcare, a service for doctors to access patient health data and manage their clinics.

Its second product Qhealth is an app that focusses on patients and allows them to engage with clinicians, stay connected, manage appointments, set medicine reminders and self-manage their care better.

Sanjay Singh, Founder and CEO, QorQl said, “QorQL is pursuing the vision to democratise healthcare access. Our connected health applications are leveraging AI and big data to collect, integrate, and interpret data for all users. This not only helps us solve tough problems but also helps our users stay healthy. We look forward to leveraging Paytm’s massive reach and bring to market our solutions quicker and at scale.”

The startup claims to offer its services to over 60,000 consumers. The service is currently available in Delhi NCR, Aligarh and is expanding to several Tier II markets across India.

In August 2016, healthcare analytics startup Tricog raised Series A funding from Blume Ventures, Inventus Capital Partners, and others. In December 2016, Kolkata-based healthtech startup, Tiyo raised an undisclosed amount in a Seed round of funding led by Middle East-based existing investor, Ajith Nair, CEO iAdepto Global.

Other competitors in the healthtech space include Practo, Curofy, and Portea among others.

Backed by Alibaba, Ant Financial, SAIF Partners, and others, Noida-based Paytm was founded in 2010 as a digital payments platform, which then expanded to the ecommerce sector. It currently claims to have a user base of 140 Mn and is expected to launch its Payments bank this year. In July 2016, it announced plans to invest an estimated $90 Mn (INR 600 Cr) on marketing for the 2016 financial year. In September 2016, the company said that it was planning to invest $120 Mn- $149Mn to develop its ecommerce business, Paytm E-commerce Pvt. Ltd.

It has earlier backed startups like TapChief, LogiNext, Jugnoo and has acquired startups including Shopsity and Shifu.