Saif Partners Invests $3 Mn in Bangalore Based Healthcare Startup Qikwell Technologies

Bangalore based healthcare startup Qikwell Technologies that connects patients and doctors has raised $3 Mn in series A round of funding lead by SAIF Partners.

Qikwell provides complete information on doctors, live information on doctor’s availability, online appointment booking, delay/or schedule change notifications, etc.

The startup plans to use the funds raised to expand its sales and marketing footprint across the country. It plans to reach out about 100 Mn consumers, 35,000 consultant specialists and manage 5 Mn appointments a month in the next 2-3 years.

This follows an angel round in which it had raised INR 1.2 Cr. from 6 investors including Amit Somani, Sunil Kalra and Alok Mittal.

“The healthcare market in India is estimated to be $100 billion and it’s highly fragmented. There are 6 lakh doctors in India and 1 lakh specialists. The demand for specialists is so high that the ratio is skewed,” company co-founder Krishna Prasad said.

Qikwell currently has a network of 1,000 specialists in Bangalore including cardiologists, gynaecologists and urologists.  It charges a commission from the doctors or clinics for appoitments made through its platform.

Qikwell was started in 2011 by Krishna Prasad Chitrapura and Raghavendra Prasad TS.

There are number of players in this space who have managed to raise funding this year including HelpingDoc, Bangalore-based DocTree and Lybrate Inc. Practo is yet another player dealing in this space which is looking to raise $20 Mn.