Deal focus: HaloDoc targets healthcare access

HaloDoc, an app-based Indonesian healthcare services business, emerged in stages. Three years ago, Jonathan Sudharta created a networking platform for healthcare professionals as an offshoot of Mensa Group, an integrated pharmaceutical products provider founded by his father. Leveraging decades-old ties the company had on the distribution side, he signed up more than 18,000 doctors.

The next step involved addressing the fragmentation that existed in the doctor-patient-pharmacy relationship. "Take Amoxicillin, : there are 200 different brands in Indonesia and every doctor prescribes the one they like based on relationships with pharmaceutical companies," Sudharta says. "A lot of people are confused as to where to get their prescription product."

ApotikAntar was intended to solve this problem by acting as a centralized platform that took patients' orders through the internet or by phone and instructed nearby pharmacies to make deliveries. However, it took several hours for the drugs to reach the patient. The emergence of Go-Jek as a scale player in the ride-hailing and delivery space changed that, and ultimately set Sudharta on a new path.

He knew the Go-Jek team personally and they soon saw the logic of combining the company's driver fleet with ApotikAntar's network of 1,000 certified partner pharmacies. The ApotikAntar app launched in January and a pilot project with Go-Jek followed. Sudharta then took his third step, creating HaloDoc - an app-based consultation platform through which patients can identify and communicate with doctors - in order to complete the ecosystem. It launched in April.

The Go-Jek team and the founders of Blibli, an e-commerce platform controlled by local tobacco giant Djarum Group, has have already suggested that the business spin out from Mensa and raise capital independently. This has now come to pass with Clermont Group, a Singapore-based private investment firm led by billionaire Richard Chandler, leading a Series A round worth $11 million. It takes the company's overall funding to $13 million.

Go-Jek, and Blibli also took part, and Go-Jek also referred the deal to one of its investors, Singapore-based NSI Ventures. As part of the deal, patients will be able to use a new Go-Med function on Go-Jek's platform to order and arrange delivery of pharmaceutical products.

Clermont's involvement is significant given its existing healthcare assets in Vietnam and the Philippines. This raises the prospect of HaloDoc - the three branches of the business have been consolidated under a single brand - entering new markets, but the initial focus is on getting Indonesia right. "We want to change the face of healthcare access in Indonesia because we are not just a platform to connect people with doctors; we are a platform to connect people with healthcare services," Sudharta says.

As to where HaloDoc will focus its attentions next, Shane Chesson, co-founder of NSI, sees potential in partnerships with insurance providers. "The patient consults with the doctor via mobile, the doctor prescribes medicine, and in many cases the patient pays directly and gets reimbursed," he says. "Imagine if you could close that loop by bringing insurers directly into the flow."

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Healthcare
• Technology
• Early-stage
• Indonesia
• NSI Ventures
• TMT
• Go-Jek