On-demand healthcare marketplace, Inayo raises seed funding, to expand to 22 localities
Mumbai-based on-demand healthcare marketplace, Inayo has raised $300,000 in seed funding. The investors who participated in the round include Amit Ranjan (Founder, SlideShare); Kemark Ventures; Zishaan Hayath and others. Inayo was started by Raunak Jain, CEO (ex Flipkart, Toppr, IITB), Abhishek Sinha, COO (ex Housing, IIMB) and Purna Chandra, CTO (IITB).
The mobile app platform aims at simplifying medication and healthcare. The startup claims to have over 30,000 products spread across categories such as medicines, patanjali, ayurvedic products, sports nutrition, personal care products, baby care products etc on the platform. Currently their service areas include Powai and Andheri in Mumbai.
How it works
To order medicines on the app, users need to either upload a picture from their smartphone's gallery or click a picture of their valid prescription on the spot and place an order. The prescription is then manually verified by a pharmacist who has partnered with Inayo. In the future, the startup aims to bring more automation into the process with OCR and other means to make it work at larger volumes. After the order is placed, a third party logistics provider ensures the order reaches the customer within their promised time period of 90 minutes.
The startup currently relies on word of mouth, referral, social media marketing and tie-ups with doctors and pharmacies to gain traction and users for their app. Speaking to YourStory, Abhishek mentioned that one of the most prevalent problems in the healthcare industry is patients not following up on their prescribed treatment, because of forgetfulness or other reasons. To cater to this pain point, Inayo allows users to set reminders and instructions with details on how and when patients need to take their medicines. At the moment the startup only offers payment through cash on delivery.
Sector overview
Healthcare is one of the largest sectors in India, in terms of both revenue and employment. On the global level, it is estimated to reach about USD 160 billion by 2017, and USD 280 billion by 2020 and so far mobile-centric digital-health startups have collectively raised over USD 1.3Billion. Many of these startups cater to the on-demand sector, providing app-powered services such as medicine delivery and therapist sessions. Backed by Kleiner Perkins and Trident Capital, Teladoc, a telemedicine provider, recently filed for an IPO. Others in the on demand space are Medicast, Pager and FirstOpinion (text questions to doctors).
Abhishek estimates that the Indian healthcare sector stands at around USD 35 Billion currently and is likely grow to USD 90Billion in the next seven years. Another player in the on-demand healthcare sector in India is Ghaziabad based Delimedi. Health and wellness e-tailer Healthkart launched HealthKartPlus last year to enable consumers to know more about medicines and find substitutes from other brands as well as their generic equivalents. Others in the same sector are Ekohealth founded by Akash Rajpal and TrueMD founded by BITs Pilani graduates.
Related read: How tech and smartphones are transforming the infrastructure-intensive healthcare industry
Future plans
Inayo currently consists of a 15 member team and plans to expand to 22 by next week. The funding round will be used for Inayo’s expansion to 22 localities in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru as well as for enhancing the product features. The startup also aims to process 100 orders per day by October end and also enter into other healthcare services such as on-demand pathology tests. They are currently active on Android only and plan to launch the app on other platforms in the future.
Website: Inayo
