The Russian house-call doctor service DOC+ has secured $9 million in a round led by Swedish fund Vostok New Ventures VNV), with participation from existing shareholders Yandex and Baring Vostok Capital Partners.
The deal, which took place in the second quarter of this year, according to the VNV’s latest financial report, was reported in details yesterday by Kommersant, based on exchanges with DOC+, Yandex and Baring Vostok.
According to the Russian business daily, the startup will use the funding to develop further its technological platform, test new e-medicine concepts or products, develop new in-house AI solutions and a variety of other e-medicine services.
DOC+ claims to have processed more than 200,000 online consultations since its launch in 2015, and that its app has been installed more than 250,000 times. Some 300 practitioners work with the company, covering a variety of medical specialties.
DOC+’s general manager Ruslan Zaydullin told Kommersant there are similarities between a product of his company and that of Oscar Health. This US insuretech startup has just raised $375 million from Google’s mother company Alphabet.
Yandex and Baring Vostok already invested twice in Doc+: $5 million in 2016 and another $5 million last year.
The company’s first funding, in 2015, amounted to 35 million rubles (roughly half a million US dollars at that time’s exchange rate), coming from a group of Russian and Western business angels.
On the Russian telemedicine market, DOC+ competes with Online Doctor, Pediatrician 24/7, ONDOC, Doctor Ryadom among other services. As a competitive advantage, DOC+ benefits from an exclusive partnership with Yandex, with DOC+ doctors providing consultations via the ‘Yandex.Health’ service.
Another telemedecine startup, Docdoc, focuses on booking in-clinic appointments, unlike DOC+, and aims to build a universal health service platform in Russia. This startup has been backed by Sberbank, the national savings bank.
Telemedicine fully legal in Russia
A new telemedicine law came into effect on January 1, 2018, allowing Russian citizens to benefit from a range of e-healthcare services. The legislation makes fully legal remote professional communication between doctors, as well as communications between doctors and patients or their legal representatives. Remote monitoring of patients’ health – after an initial in-person visit – is now also possible, based on their medical history and available medical records.
Also, Russians can now legally book in-clinic appointments, call for a doctor for a home visit, request preventive medical examination through an electronic single window of state and municipal services. Besides, they can access electronic data related to their mandatory medical insurance and their medical records.
The law will allow also physicians to issue online medical prescriptions, starting January 1, 2019.
The digital health services market in Russia will reach 180 billion rubles by 2020 (around $3 billion at the current rate), according to Sberbank data cited by DOC+.
