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“Today, we are in two countries—India and the UAE. In the past, we had forayed into many countries. But after a year we moved back. At the time, Practo was very big and had raised a lot of capital. We had spread ourselves too thin. We were not just running international businesses but also focusing on e-pharmacy and diagnostics in India,” Shashank said in an interview.
While overseas markets are a good way to expand revenues, Practo realised that the growing opportunities in India’s healthcare landscape could not be missed. “The whole healthcare sector in India was booming. So, we really needed to focus and make sure that while we are expanding globally, our market share and our focus in India doesn’t get diluted,” he added.
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Moreover, limited resources prompted Practo to reorient its strategy and double down on its India business. “We refocused some of those investments on the Indian use cases. We also did a lot of investing into technology and solving for medicine delivery and diagnostics. The Indian markets were deepening at the time and it was crucial for us to focus on our core market to gain market share and be profitable,” Shashank noted.
On Wednesday, the Bengaluru-based health-tech firm announced its entry into the UAE by setting up its consumer-facing teleconsultation and healthcare navigation services at Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah. Patients in these regions can now access Practo’s online services, including doctor discovery and appointment booking.
As an insurance-led healthcare market, Dubai places emphasis on coverage when it comes to accessing care. Shashank already has insurance data at the establishment level and will make this available at the doctor level by the end of the month. Some of the early clinics and hospitals partnering with Practo include e-Kaya Skin Clinic, Sulaiman Habib Hospital and Clinics, Micris Dental, Smile on Dental Clinic and Quintinha hospitals.
The firm has now invested “a couple of million dollars” in overseas expansions and will bulk up the investment as efforts bear fruit, Shashank said.
“India’s digital health market is becoming highly competitive. To drive growth, Practo is now focusing on international markets with a strong Indian diaspora starting with the UAE, where Indians make up nearly 38% of the population. These users are already familiar with Indian healthcare platforms, offering a low-friction entry point and faster adoption,” said Ayush Singh, practice member (healthcare and lifesciences) at Praxis Global Alliance.
He believes that online healthcare should be looked at as a service complementary to physical healthcare. “While not all care can be delivered online, services like teleconsultations, e-prescriptions, diagnostics booking, and follow-up care are increasingly going digital. With the right partnerships and regulatory regimes, digital-first models can complement local healthcare systems.”
Founded in 2008 by Shashank and Abhinav Lal, Practo started off as a doctor appointment booking platform. Over the years, it added surgery care and software services for hospitals to its portfolio. Backed by China’s Tencent Holdings, Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India and SEA), and Z47 (formerly Matrix Partners), Practo has raised nearly $200 million till date.
In 2017, it started operations in the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brazil, hoping to capture market share in regions beyond India. To be sure, Practo’s business-to-business software services are available in 22 countries today, but its consumer-facing vertical is present in India and now the UAE.
The idea of making another expansion attempt is fuelled by the convenience of adoption in the post-pandemic world. “After Covid, it looks like things have gotten a lot easier in terms of regulation and cheaper in terms of cost than 5-6 years back. It’s much more cost effective to do it today.”
“With AI [artificial intelligence] coming through, the ability for us to expand our core business has become easier. So this has also led us to go back into the international markets,” Shashank said.
Practo, which aims to reach another region beyond India and the UAE by the end of the year, will focus on countries having a strong Indian diaspora. “It’s not a required condition, but we usually want to take those off earlier because those provide us a lot of credibility and so it’s much faster for us to expand in those markets. And what we are also seeing now that our playbook is getting settled in, it’s getting faster and faster for us to execute,” Practo’s chief executive added.
The firm also has plans for a public-market listing in the next few years and is currently focused on maintaining profitability. It claims to have hit profitability in FY24 and sustained the performance along with positive cash flows in FY25.
Speaking of slowdown in demand for teleconsultation, Shashank believes that while the demand may have tapered after the pandemic, it is certainly outperforming pre-pandemic levels. “I will not say it’ll be 100% ever, but can 20-30% of healthcare be delivered online? I completely think that can happen. And it’s moving in that direction. Certainly slow, but certainly in that direction.”
