Now get your healthcare services delivered home with Klinikals

Self-funded with Rs 50 lakh, the company is trying to streamline healthcare at home, with better access to medicines, home care, and collection of lab samples, all in one platform

At a Glance

Company: Klinikals

Year it was founded: 2016

Founders: Raj Kunnath, Kenneth R D Massey, Senthil Kumar A, and Rakesh Kotakkalathil

Where it is based: Chennai

Sector: Healthcare

The problem it solves: Combining access to home healthcare with collection of lab samples and delivery of medicine on a single platform

Funding: Self-funded with Rs 50 lakh

Four friends - Raj Kunnath (44), Kenneth RD Massey (43), Senthil Kumar A (43), and Rakesh Kotakkalathil (44) - grew up together in Chennai and went to the same school. As children, they dreamed like any child would, about helping communities to thrive. But, it was not until they grew up that they figured their calling.

Since all of them lived a busy life in their corporate and entrepreneurial roles, they realised they were weak-kneed by personal experiences. Sometimes, when they travelled, they had no way of arranging qualified nurses for their aging parents, and ensure that their medication would be taken on time, or their lab samples would be collected.

Further, they could not access pharmacies to deliver medicines based on location, and assure on-time delivery. These personal experiences, combined with the healthcare industry’s inability to provide timely care, motivated them to build a venture that would make healthcare simple and accessible.

Simply put, Klinikals is a platform where a patient can get all healthcare services at one place.

The company was registered in November 2016, and the founders started actual development in early March 2017. “We piloted pharmacy and lab modules in select areas in Chennai in late 2017, and formally announced a Chennai-wide service coverage in a couple of months,” says Raj.

The platform

The company has invested close to Rs 50 lakh to build the platform. Technology engineering, sales and marketing, customer service (including the call centre and first/last mile services), and business operations are all handled in-house. The company is now piloting the 'Klinician' app for healthcare professionals. All their businesses will be available on this app, and it will also provide a dashboard of the services rendered.

“Our model, from inception, is to have a technology-enabled single destination app for the consumer, where they will have accessibility, choice, convenience and better care while getting their everyday needs fulfilled,” says Raj.

While they are solving issues like same-day delivery of medicines, ensuring safe transportation of samples that are collected by their phlebotomists, and enabling convenient doctor-patient interactions, they are also solving a number of issues for their partners.

The platform helps partners - doctors, nurses, clinics and pharmaceutical stores - get access to more patients.

The consumer too will have all their health and transaction information available on a single platform.

Future plans

The company currently operates in Chennai, and plans to expand to a couple of smaller cities before moving to other metros and larger cities in India. At present, Klinikals has 5,000 families using its platform in Chennai alone.

“Klinikals is not an online pharmacy, and not just another “fronting” service for other providers. Klinikals brings new capabilities to existing players by streamlining the current micro models that exist in the local economy,” says Raj.

With technology and automation, the company helps to streamline and bring standardisation to the healthcare industry.

“This service-oriented network is attracting considerable interest from healthcare providers including physicians, pharmacies and labs,” says Raj.

The business and technology

The technology platform streamlines healthcare experience for both patients and providers with intelligent algorithms. The data and the AI (Artificial Intelligence) part of platform helps healthcare providers give better care for patients, and helps patients to monitor and get the right care.

The technology platform is not just built around transactions, but more around engagement and outcome. Healthcare providers and patients can participate in the network through the mobile web, and the mobile app helps with discovery, analytics, and fulfillment of health service.

Klinikals' competitors include Portea, MUrgency, and PharmEasy.

The company is on an ARR (accounting rate of return) of close to Rs 2 crore. For now, it is focusing on customer engagement and delivery of service. The founders are looking at consolidating the Tamil Nadu region before scaling up to other cities.

“Startups in the consumer business need to focus on creating a strong customer engagement platform and ensure regular usage of services,” says V Ganapathy of Axilor Ventures.

According to IBEF, the size of the current healthcare market in India is $160 billion. There are plenty of startups providing and reaching healthcare to individuals. So far, only Practo, the doctor discovery and HIS platform, has received more than $130 million in funding. Hopefully, there will be others in the race to receive such large rounds of funding. But who dares wins. Klinikals is on its journey to the top.