Russian digital health company DOC+ nabs $5 mln Series B

Russian digital health company DOC+ has secured $5 million in Series B funding. The investors were Yandex and Baring Vostok.

PRESS RELEASE

Moscow – 6th of June, 2017. DOC+, the largest funded digital health company in Russia developing an innovative digital clinic without branches, today announced that it has raised $5M in Round B funding from existing investors – Yandex internet company and Baring Vostok venture fund.

The new capital will be used to develop advanced digital health services, as well as to expand the core business of on-demand visits and telemedicine consultations. Launched in 2015, DOC+ previously raised seed funding from business angels and $5.5M in round A investment from Yandex and Baring Vostok.

The company’s revenue in 2016 reached 70M roubles ($1,2M). Since the launch, DOC+ app was installed over 70K times, and the company’s doctors made over 60K visits, growing 4x in 2017H1 vs. 2016H1. Earlier this week, Russia’s Yandex announced “Yandex.Health” – a telemed service providing medical consultations online where DOC+ is an exclusive partner.

Quotes
«Getting a doctor’s home visit from a commercial clinic in Russia is expensive, often takes long time and is not available outside big cities. And digital health infrastructure almost does not exist. We decided to change this. – says Ruslan Zaydullin, DOC+ cofounder and CEO. – Although we started with the basic on-demand doctor house calls, we soon realized that we need to build the entire IT infrastructure to provide all medical services that could be delivered at home or remotely. Our investors share our vision of building Russian leading e-clinic and we hugely appreciate their support.»

About DOC+
Founded in August 2015, DOC+ is the largest funded digital health company in Russia, top-20 in Europe and top-35 worldwide, excluding the USA. DOC+ provides on-demand doctor visits and telemedicine consultations. The company is disrupting the Russian private healthcare by building an innovative digital clinic on a user’s smartphone.

For more information, please visit: https://docplus.ru/

DOC+ will use the new investment to build an omni-channel digital clinic without branches. The company explains the concept by drawing an analogy with online banks did with traditional banking. Just like the bank does not have any branches or ATMs, DOC+ clinic will be on the user’s smartphone, but with real doctors, tests and electronic health records.

Key services
DOC+ provides on-demand doctor services in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, with another Russian city to follow in 2018. Users can book a visit via the call centre, the mobile app, or the website. The closest doctor available picks up the order and visits a patient at home. The services include: consultations, prescriptions, sick notes, medical tests, ECG, referrals to MRI, and other advanced diagnostics. DOC+ also offers personalized services like digital health records and personal doctor subscriptions.

DOC+ does not simply connect doctors and patients. It is a fully functioning clinic with applicable medical licenses and staff. The company works with 300 highly qualified therapists (GPs), pediatricians, otolaryngologists, neurologists and nurses, and features a quality rate of 4.9 out of 5. Prices vary from 1200 to 3000 roubles ($21 – $53) per visit.

Additionally, DOC+ offers telemedicine consultations via chat, audio- or video calls for Russian speaking users. With the new telemedicine legislation approved by the Russian government and awaiting the Parliament’s review, DOC+ aims to expand the range of services. DOC+ telemed services are priced at 100 roubles ($1.8) for the first and 499 roubles ($8.8) for a follow-up doctor-patient chat. Although still being in a test phase, dozens of consultations are provided daily, the number is expected to grow to hundreds by end-2017.

Market and competitors
According to Sberbank, digital health services market in Russia will reach 180B roubles by 2020. Sberbank, Russia’s leading financial organization, this week announced the acquisition of 80% stake in DocDoc.ru, an online medical appointment startup. Unlinke DOC+, DocDoc focuses on booking in-clinic appointments, although it also has ambitions in telemedicine and other e-health segments.

Doctors in Moscow make over 50K home visits daily. DOC+ can potentially cover 10% of Moscow house call market. The competitors are any clinics where users can book a home visit, and clinic search systems like MedBooking. Although none of them in Russia combine online and offline medicine, providing both home visits and remote online consultations.

On the Russian telemedicine market, DOC+ competes with “Online Doctor”, “Pediatrician 24/7”, ONDOC, “Doctor Ryadom”, and others. Although the company benefits from an exclusive partnership with Yandex – DOC+ doctors will provide consultations within the recently announced “Yandex.Health” service.

DOC+ also works with private clinics and top 20 insurance companies in Russia who outsource house visits, and is discussing integration with local social networks (e.g. VKontakte) and online portals (e.g. baby.ru).

International Peers
On a worldwide scale, two of the most funded telemedicine companies (Telacoc and American Well, both – USA) operate in the B2B market. The largest funded B2C peers (Doctor on Demand and MD Live, both – USA) do not provide consultations in chat or over the phone. Working with English speaking patients only, Talkspace provides similar to DOC+ functionality, but without the phone support.

The biggest European peers also feature limited options compared to DOC+: babylon and Pushdoctor (UK) do not operate in the B2B market, Mesdocteurs (France) features less communication channels, and Patientus (Germany) provides only web-based video consultations to end users.

DOC+ is looking for the international partnerships with digital health startups from other countries which are interested to localize their tech for the Russian market.