Dhaka-based digital healthcare startup Doctor Koi announced that it has raised US$500,000 in seed investment from Verge HealthTech Fund, an early-stage healthcare tech venture capital fund focusing on the Asia-Pacific, the Middle-East, and North Africa regions. First reported by Mobihealthnews, the round was also joined by undisclosed industry and local investors.
Founded in 2017, Doctor Koi offers two services: one, “a prescription writing software called Digital RX that enables doctors to write a prescription with a few clicks and manage their medical practice digitally” and two, online consultation services through its web. DoctorKoi suggests that its prescription writing software helps doctors save time, and improve service quality — complaints against illegible doctor’s hand-writing is a widespread medical woe in Dhaka — and allows doctors to serve more patients.
The company plans to use the fresh funding to expand its business in Bangladesh, develop new value-added services, and take its digital prescription tool to 10,000 more physicians in the country, per the report.
Digital healthcare offers big opportunities in Bangladesh. Accordingly, the vertical has seen an influx of interesting players over the last few years. Despite an influx of players taking on various aspects of healthcare, the vertical has yet to produce a clear market leader. Moreover, digital healthcare remains an unproven market. While online consultation has grown meaningfully over the past months, thanks to the pandemic, it is hard to predict whether the growth will hold in a post-pandemic world. People still maintain a high preference for in-person doctor visits.
This leaves an opening for any company that can execute better in the digital healthcare space. DoctorKoi, being an early player in the prescription software space, has an early mover advantage in the market. DoctorKoi raising new investment suggests that investors are also taking interest in the vertical.