Practo losses soar 3X while revenue sees mere 22% growth

Healthtech major Practo has posted a loss of Rs 190.68 crore while its revenue stood at Rs 211.98 crore during the financial year 2016-17. The company’s losses has spiked by three times (3X) during the last fiscal as compared to the previous one.

The Tencent-backed company has registered a revenue growth of 1.2X in FY17 over previous fiscal. It had posted a revenue of Rs 165.14 crore during FY16. Meanwhile, its losses pegged at Rs 64.61 crore in the same financial year.

The overall expenses jumped to Rs 402.66 crore in FY17 from Rs 229.76 crore in the previous fiscal. The major chunk of expenses accounted for staff costs. The development was first reported by Mint via business information platform Tofler.

Currently, the major portion of Practo revenue comes from B2B solutions meant for doctors. On the consumer front, it lets users book appointment with doctors, pathology, physiotherapist amongst others. It also delivers medicine at consumer doorstep.

The company has unveiled its brand identity and started new positioning as a complete health platform in April 2017.

In 2016, Practo had forayed into 15 overseas markets including Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Brazil. The company claims that it has been witnessing 60 per cent spike in doctors appointment booking. Practo offers consumer and software solutions in 5 countries while it covers 10 more countries through enterprise solution business.

The company claims to list over 200,000 healthcare providers and enables 50 million bookings a year. So far, it had amassed about $179 million total funding across three institutional rounds. Tencent along with ru-Net, RSI Fund (owned by Recruit Capital), Thrive Capital and others had pumped in $55 million in Series D round in January 2017.

Practo’s rival 1mg had secured $15 million worth Series C round led by HBM Healthcare Investment in July last year. The company competes with Portea, NetMeds and 1 mg among several others.