SUMMARY
The Policybazaar Group’s healthcare business DocPrime was launched in June 2018
The development came after Policybazaar Group recently raised more than $200 Mn from SoftBank and others
The Policybazaar Group also owns brands such as Paisabazaar and PolicyBazaar
DocPrime, the latest healthcare venture by Policybazaar and Paisabazaar parent EtechAces Marketing and Consulting (‘Policybazaar Group’), has received an initial internal funding of $50 Mn from the parent company.
In June 2018, the Policybazaar Group marked its entry into the healthcare business with DocPrime, while announcing a delay in its IPO plans as well. This was also a time when the Policybazaar Group raised more than $200 Mn funding led by SoftBank Vision Fund and InfoEdge.
“We intend to use the capital in providing seamless user experience and bringing innovation in the healthcare space. Our focus is to make the services more customer-friendly driven by transparency, trust and sustainability. We are bringing innovation through the use of various technology tools like AI, data science and deep analytics,” said Ashish Gupta, CEO, docprime.com.
According to Yashish Dahiya, CEO and co-founder, the Policybazaar Group of Companies, the healthcare sector has a lot of untapped potential and, currently, the services are not affordable and accessible for all. With rising out-of-pocket expenses, there’s a need to provide quality healthcare at competitive prices that can be accessed by anyone, anywhere.
DocPrime is a monthly subscription service that will provide complete coverage of outpatient department (OPD) expenses incurred by users, covering all doctor calls, medical checks, and tests, barring surgeries and pharmacy-related expenses.
Its core offerings include free consultation services through chat and phone with in-house doctors and offer discounted doctor and lab appointment bookings to encourage consumers to seek expert medical advice and get the right treatment healthcare in a timely manner. The platform also aims to bring in a unique OPD subscription-based product, which will cover unlimited consultations and diagnostic tests.
As claimed by the company, DocPrime has tied-up with 14,000 doctors and 5,000 diagnostic labs and aims to expand its network to 1,50,000 doctors and 20,000 labs across 100+ cities. “Currently, appointments can be booked with doctors and labs based in Delhi-NCR but from next month onwards, the facility will be made available across all major cities including Mumbai, Bengaluru Hyderabad and Chennai,” said Gupta.
Earlier, in August 2018, Inc42 also reported that PolicyBazaar plans to work with China’s Ping An Insurance Group, which owns and operates Ping An Good Doctor — the world’s largest healthcare portal — to strengthen DocPrime. Ping An Good Doctor is backed by Softbank.
The Policybazaar Group is also planning to sell medicines online, thus challenging existing players like 1mg Technologies, NetMeds etc.
Practo, Healthkart, Zoctr, Tricog, Care24, Zozz have emerged in recent times to tap into various niches of the online healthcare services.
Overall, the Indian healthcare market stands at $100 Bn as per IBEF. It is expected to touch $280 Bn by 2020, growing at a CAGR of 22.9%. According to industry estimates, standalone outpatient care in terms of size would be six times that of the current health insurance market by that year. Drugs, diagnostics, consultations and tests primarily constitute out-of-pocket-expenses.
