Practo: Story Of Two NIT Graduates Who Formed India’s Biggest HealthTech Brand

The COVID-19 outbreak in India saw the revolution of many sectors across the country and the healthcare industry was one of them. Telemedicine became the way of life as face-to-face consultations with medical practitioners was risky for both doctors and patients. Leading the online healthcare system from the front, Practo established itself as the biggest healthtech platform in this space.

Interestingly, when the founders of Practo, Shashank ND and Abhinav Lal, decided to begin a modest venture to digitize health records, little did they know that their concept would be a much sought-after platform in the healthcare industry, catching the attention of some of the biggest investors in the world.

Having said that, let’s delve into the success story of Practo and its founders.

How did it begin?

Shashank ND’s journey started in 2008, when he graduated from National Institute of Technology (NIT) Suratkal, Karnataka. At that time, when Shashank was all set to enter the new phase of his life, he was hit by a personal tragedy. Shashank’s father had undergone a knee replacement surgery and so, he was looking for a second opinion from another physician for the sake of his father’s better health. But he was unable to collect all the necessary documents immediately and eventually failed to share his father’s medical reports with other doctors. This got him thinking about the advantage of digitizing health records.

As a result, he started working on finding a better way to solve the problem and decided to build a software that simplifies the healthcare industry. Shashank then discussed the idea with his college friend Abhinav Lal and the duo founded Practo Ray. The platform allows the doctors to upload and store medical records, prescriptions, patient history, billing schedules, appointments etc.

In 2009, Practo Ray went live and was circulated among the doctors in Bangalore, many of whom even started using it to streamline their practices.

Obstacles in the road

When you start something new, a lot of people share different points of views, some say your products/services were helpful while others undermine your brand value. But if you choose to continuously improve your strategies and never lose your trust in your brand, the success will certainly come to you. The early days of Practo were tough as they had to convince the doctors to sign up for their platform and the doctors further had to convince their patients that it was a safe and reliable way to book appointments. However, defeating all the odds, Shashank and Abhinav found their way of success and by 2010, this online healthcare platform was available in five cities of India.

The success of Practo

Today, Practo has expanded its services in over 20 countries. The platform has seen more than 18 crore patients availing its services every year, and has over one lakh doctors on it, with over 70,000 partner clinics and hospitals. Not only this, the company has raised over $200 million from big investors such as Sequoia Capital, Tencent, and Google. The Bengaluru-based startup has now become India’s largest healthtech company with a valuation of more than $1 billion.