“I live with my family in a rural area. Each time I had to take my mother to a doctor, we had to extensively research which is the nearest and best hospital. Following tedious research, we would still stand in a queue as these hospitals are always crowded,” NotInLine founder and CEO Sohan Kumar Dey told Entrackr.
Having experienced the hassles of an unorganized system at rural hospitals, Dey joined hands with Rohit Samantaray and Bishal Rana to launch a platform called ‘NotInLine’ in 2022.
Based out of Bhubaneswar, the startup has a bouquet of services aimed at solving various challenges in the healthcare sector, particularly in smaller towns and cities in India – such as queue management, access to basic facilities like diagnosis, and finding and selecting doctors of their preference, among others.
One of the platform’s most widely used services is the ‘outpatient department booking services’. Available through the company’s mobile app, the service allows people to make OPD appointments in real time. This essentially empowers people to select time slots, preferred healthcare providers, and secure appointments.
Another highlight of the platform is that it allows people to book tests at their preferred labs in their area. People can also compare prices for the tests at different labs. There is also a personalized support service which helps people narrow down their research for suitable doctors and subsequent healthcare.
The platform is currently available in four cities in Orissa, including Bhubaneswar. The company has partnered with more than 140 doctors, and about 50 clinics and hospitals. Since it started operations in July last year, it has served more than 3,000 users and facilitated more than 400 appointments.
NotInLine’s business model is pretty much straightforward as of now – it charges a standard commission rate of 5-10% it takes as a convenience fee for OPD appointments and 35% for lab tests booked through it. Without divulging the capital raised, Dey disclosed that the company has received funding from Start Up India Seed Fund Scheme and investor Rishav Agarwal.
NotInLine is among a handful of startups, including Medyseva, that are currently focusing on the rural healthcare space. Overall the Indian healthcare space was estimated to be worth $280 billion by 2020 and the Indian hospital industry is expected to reach $132 billion by 2023 from $61.8 billion in 2017 with a CAGR of 16-17%.
As mentioned above, rural healthcare space has quite a few challenges, and the experience is significantly different from its counterparts in urban cities. Though from a business perspective, urban cities make a lot of sense for entrepreneurs as these geographies offer more internet saving consumers and may quickly cater to a large population.
NotInLine, however, understands the prospects of focusing on rural areas. Dey says that the company will continue to stick to tier 2 and tier 3 towns in the near future.
Dey said, “Our main focus is the tier two tier three cities. Tier one cities have the most services readily available. But in other cities not much is available, there are hardly 10-12 hospitals. People also travel to other cities just for treatment and would not be aware of the top facilities there.”
In addition to expanding geographically to other rural areas, it is also looking to further develop its services in the areas of queue management, OPD to lab conversion, and chain of chemists and phlebotomists.
