UAE-based Okadoc is planning an “accelerated international expansion”, according to its recently appointed chairman Faisal Bin Juma Belhoul.
The start-up, which was launched in April 2018 by former group CEO of the $1 billion UAE e-commerce site, Noon, French Algerian Fodhil Benturquia, connects healthcare providers and doctors with patients, and vice versa, with patients able to find doctors across more than 130 specialities based on location, language spoken, insurance and availability.
The platform already has a strong presence in the UAE. It also has a footprint in Saudi Arabia and Indonesia, while Benturquia has previously said he’s targeting market penetration of at least 30 percent in the UAE by 2022.
Belhoul told Arabian Business: “There will be an accelerated international expansion because a lot of the ground work to lay the foundations, mainly on the technology side, has been done and it’s a very scalable model.
“The idea is to continue to capture more market share on those key markets, but then have a wider strategy that allows us to define our next steps geographically.
“Our aspirations over the next two to three years is really to be a much larger player in the much wider region, that will allow us to dominate at least the Middle East and parts of Asia as being the leader in e-healthcare services over this period of time.”
In February this year the company closed its $10 million Series A round, following a $2.3m seed round in 2018. The latest fund-raising round was the largest health tech Series A in the MENA region.
Investors included Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) and Ithmar Capital Partners, whom Belhoul is the founder.
Growth story
While he said that $10m “comfortably allows the company to achieve its initiatives and growth plans over the coming almost two years”, he refused to rule out further fundraising, including the potential to take the company public in the long-term.
“As is the case with such companies, whenever you are hitting your milestones and you are expanding at a pace you anticipated you would be on, there always will be room for more capital to further accelerate the growth story,” he said.
“We see this as something which will be up for discussion more towards the middle of next year when we start planning what kind of content and what is the use of this capital and that will probably be a Series B type funding and that will lead to a much larger and bigger scale and at that point we can start to evaluate or contemplate other ideas, including IPOs, but that’s a bit further along,” he added.
Belhoul admitted that while the onset of the coronavirus pandemic impacted Okadoc, which was named Start-up of the Year at the annual Arabian Business Start-up Awards in November, he said that it also presented an opportunity to fast-track the launch of its telemedicine service.
Telemedicine leader
He explained: “Covid-19 has been a shock to every industry and every situation. Its first impact on Okadoc has been negative because what has happened is there were a lot of contracts in the pipeline and these contracts, naturally, was delayed because of the shift in priorities for the various healthcare providers.
“The initial reaction was, how can we mitigate the risk? But then putting on the more opportunistic, thinking hat, and credit to the CEO, he realised that telemedicine, which was initially tabled down for Q4 of 2020 as an add-on module, along with the booking services, it became evident that it had to be accelerated and implemented faster because with Covid and its implications on people, they wanted to see their doctors remotely.
“That made him (Fodhil Benturquia) push that project forward and, thanks to the circumstances, Okadoc is the leader when it comes to telemedicine services, although that was only an add-on module and not necessarily the core offering of the platform.”
UAE residents are now able to set up virtual consultations with over 400 doctors to date across the country from the safety of their home.
“In the past people have been very reluctant with the concept of telemedicine and consultation through the internet and they all wanted to physically go there. But if you think about it, the amount of time you waste, driving to the hospital and sitting waiting, it’s much more convenient to do it over the platform,” said Belhoul.
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