Telehealth startup Doctor Anywhere’s surprise move: Opening physical clinics

Joe Gan and Simon Huang co-reported this story.

All signs are pointing towards 2020 as the year of telehealth. Essentially, it means people can consult a doctor online. After all, amid the uncertainty of the Covid-19 pandemic, why risk the commute when a diagnosis and prescription can be given via webcam?

There’s also the world’s ageing population. By 2025, close to half a billion people across Asia Pacific will be aged 65 or older. Not only are people in the region getting older, but they’re also getting sicker.

The DA team / Photo credit: Doctor Anywhere

Telehealth could offer a solution as well to the lack of adequate medical services in Asia’s far-flung areas.

This is why analysts are bullish on the global telemedicine market, which is projected to reach US$175 billion by 2026, up from US$45 billion last year. The poster child for the sector is Boston-based startup Amwell, which is gearing up for an initial public offering after banking US$100 million from Google’s cloud division.

Covid-19 is a tailwind for telehealth

Over in Southeast Asia, startups like Alodokter, Halodoc, and Doctor Anywhere (DA) have closed double-digit fundraises over the past year. The latter firm’s CEO Lim Wai Mun tells Tech in Asia that Covid-19 served as a “tailwind” for telehealth in Asia, “fast-tracking telemedicine adoption by five years.”

“We’ve achieved the goals we had set for ourselves by 2023 in 2020. We saw a huge jump in users during the onset of Covid-19 – a 200% to 300% jump in fact,” says Lim, whose company, valued at north of US$111 million, was established in Singapore. Lim can’t divulge DA’s exact valuation, but he says it “should be higher” than that figure.

From January to March, total sign-ups to use DA’s video consultation service rose by 41%. Although the growth has tapered off to “a slower pace” now, Lim adds that more than 50% of users come back to use DA’s app. The startup has one million registered users across Singapore, Vietnam, and Thailand.

What’s up, doc?

Through DA, users can consult a licensed local doctor through video consultations on the app, allowing them to skip long queues. Users in the Lion City can consult a general practitioner (GP) around the clock on the DA platform from S$20 (US$14.6) to S$35 (US$25.7) per consultation.

Although the figure is on the low end of the range as recommended by the Singapore Medical Association, Lim assures that DA “doesn’t lose money for its average transaction,” as the company “doesn’t believe in running negative gross profit margins.”

Apart from its diagnostic services, DA also delivers purchased prescriptions and medical certificates to patients “within three hours” and provides home-based health screening and vaccinations by visiting nurses at the users’ location. Medical history, health reports, and other documents are also stored in-app for easy access. The startup also makes money from its DA Marketplace platform, which sells insurance plans as well as health-related products and services.

Beyond telemedicine

How it’s faring against competitors