Russia’s DOC+ raises $5 million to expand its telemedicine services

DOC+, a Russian digital health tech startup, has raised $5 million in a Series B round from Yandex and Baring Vostok.

The Moscow-based startup provides an on-demand service for doctor visits and remote telemedicine consultations. The new injection of money will be used to continue the development of these services. The Russian legislature is currently examining new legislation that will allow for remote medical consultation services like those of DOC+.

According to DOC+, it earned revenues of $1.2 million, or 70 million roubles, last year with 70,000 app installations and 60,000 doctor visits. It has also partnered with Yandex on Yandex.Health, an online medical consultation service launched by the Russian internet giant. Yandex and Baring Vostok previously invested $5.5 million in the company’s Series A round last July.

Ruslan Zaydullin, CEO of DOC+, explained that traditional doctor home visits in Russia are expensive and lacking outside of urban areas. Telemedicine would address this services gap, said the company.

“Although we started with the basic on-demand doctor house calls, we soon realised that we need to build the entire IT infrastructure to provide all medical services that could be delivered at home or remotely,” added Zaydullin.

It currently has 300 medical professionals on its network and charges $21 to $53 per on-demand doctor visit, which is available in Moscow and St. Petersburg with plans to launch in another Russian city in 2018. The remote consultations (chat, audio, and video calls) are only available in Russian; the company charges $1.80 for the first consultation and $8.80 for follow-ups.

Competition in e-health is intensifying. DocDoc.ru acquired was acquired by Sberbank last month. It provides medical appointment booking services and is diversifying into telemedicine. Outside Russia, companies like KRY and PushDoctor are building out remote doctor consultation services via the web and apps.

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