Practo gets an injection of $30M from Sequoia, Matrix for expansion to 41 more cities

Indian healthtech startup Practo today announced that it raised US$30 million in a series B round of funding led by existing investor Sequoia Capital. Matrix Partners participated in the round. In 2012, Sequoia had invested US$4 million in the company.

Practo’s search engine helps one million users book 120,000 appointments on average in a month, says a statement from the company. The fresh funds will be used to expand to 35 more cities in India and 6 cities abroad over the next six months. Besides India, Practo is already up and running in Singapore and the Philippines.

Practo has a proprietary algorithm, which ranks doctors listed on the site based on user needs – location and specialty, feedback from patients, and appointment experience. The number of appointments booked with a doctor in the last 30 days, doctor’s availability, and patient’s recommendations are key parameters to rank doctors. Patients looking for doctors can pick the most suitable ones based on these and other criteria.

“We are on a mission to improve human longevity by simplifying healthcare,” Shashank ND, co-founder and CEO of Practo said.

Healthcare in India is crying out for tech solutions. The country already has one of the poorest doctor-patient ratios and the population is increasing at a faster rate than the number of doctors. Not surprisingly, a number of portals have come up with different ways of tackling the problem of connecting patients with the right doctors.

In Bangalore itself, another doctor search portal Qikwell raised series A funding just over three months ago from SAIF Partners. It has gained traction quickly with the promise of getting confirmed appointments with doctors who have busy schedules.

See: With nothing to lose, two Indian college kids solve a medical problem, get Sequoia backing, wow Singapore