Dipti Gore
Oct 26, 2015, Mumbai : Medd has raised 150 thousand USD from group of angels as bridge round which had participation from doctors and senior management people from big pharma, ecommerce and investment banking. This round is to fund growth till they negotiate a VC deal. The company is planning to expand to 5 more cities with the new money.
Even in a developed country like US, 12 million people are misdiagnosed every year, i.e., on an average a person is misdiagnosed thrice in a lifetime. Every year 100 million people are pushed into poverty because of catastrophic costs associated with illness in developing countries like India.
“We at Medd are trying to use the available resources and make healthcare delivery more efficient – provide more consistent healthcare outcomes at more affordable prices for our users.” shares Anurag Mundhada
Initially conceptualised as a not-for-profit, it was started in 2011 where the best labs in the city with NABL (ISO 15189) accreditation were partnered with and in four years, along with college Arpit was able to grow it from 1 centre with almost no patients to 15 centres in 3 cities and serving over 100,000 patients a year. With the model being successful, it was presented at the prestigious World Congress on Public Health in 2015, demonstrating an 80% reduction in cost for a patient using their services.
The team was offered aid to start more such centres but to really make an impact, they decided to be a scalable, technology driven company. Medd was started by Arpit Kothari, Anurag Mundhada and Akash Deep Singhal – all from IIT Bombay in May of 2015. They raised their first round of investment by Ajeet Khurana the same month and consequently a second round by angels in October 2015.
Medd now provides a platform for people to compare and choose from the best and accredited labs and hospitals around them, at a 15-50% discount and up to 70% on preventive health check-ups. The partner labs get loyal direct patients, are able to increase sales and improve profitability. They are currently live in 3 Indian cities – Mumbai, Nagpur and Indore, with over 50 lab partners including national lab chains like Thyrocare and Oncquest. They plan to add Delhi/ NCR, Bangalore and Hyderabad in the next quarter.
There is an option of going to the lab/ hospital and getting yourself tested. Where possible, they also have the option of getting the sample collected from home/ office and report delivered to the patient via email, app and a physical copy through courier.
To solve the next problem of misdiagnosis we are getting people on our platform to use only accredited labs which maintain highest standards of quality and undergo rigorous third party checks.
“Multiple people who used our services approached us to help in the cause and put in money in the venture or join us full time” tells Arpit Kothari
The company recently raised 150 thousand USD from group of angels as bridge round which had participation from doctors and senior management people from big pharma, ecommerce and investment banking. This round is to fund growth till they negotiate a VC deal.
The raised capital will be allocated to expand Medd’s network of service providers, strengthen technology interface and initiate marketing and branding efforts. The team currently is 12 people strong and they are hiring for various roles.
“We went app only like many start-ups but seeing strong demand from desktop we will be investing in web technologies heavily in the coming 3-6 months” Akash Deep Singhal, Co-founder and CTO