Deal focus: Singapore's Doctor Anywhere raises $65m Series C

Expanding a telehealth business across a region as fragmented as Southeast Asia has taught Doctor Anywhere important lessons about product localization, but the key to the company’s latest traction is in knowing when to generalize.

In the past year, Doctor Anywhere has expanded from an almost exclusive focus on its home market of Singapore to a footprint spanning Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines by tapping a proven playbook of ASEAN regionalization through omnichannel engagement.

The idea is to seamlessly facilitate a blend of onsite and virtual experiences such as an initial in-person doctor consultation, followed by a regime of quick online check-ups and the occasional house call by a nurse, who can collect samples or administers tests to be discussed later via video.

Doctor Anywhere claims this approach results in increased patient compliance with prescriptions, as well as up to 40% lower costs for care providers. It appears to be the right formula for the pandemic age, with the company said to have grown 500% since the start of 2020, reaching a user base of 1.5 million.

“We are continuing to figure out what our users really want, and at this point what we realize is we cannot be a pure online platform because while it’s a more accessible solution, it cannot solve all the issues,” says Wai Mun Lim, CEO of Doctor Anywhere. “That’s why we decided that we need to mix online and offline healthcare together into one. The holy grail for us is that the users don’t know the difference anymore.”

Asia Partners led a S$88 million ($65.5 million) Series C round in support of this thesis with participation from OSK-SBI Venture Partners, Novo Holdings, and Royal Philips, which is expected to introduce significant internet-of-things expertise into the equation. Square Peg Capital, which led a $27 million Series B last year, reupped alongside IHH Healthcare, Kamet Capital, Pavilion Capital, and EDBI.

The plan is to quadruple a 100-strong engineering team by next year and double down on existing geographies. (Indonesia is a potential expansion market in the medium term.) Most of the spending and R&D will be in customer acquisition and user experience upgrades. Asia Partners and Novo are set to be high-touch operational advisors, having made nominations to the board.

All the while, the COVID-19 backdrop will continue to drive user adoption – as well as competition. This is a potentially significant headwind for Doctor Anywhere going forward considering it has built its customer base so far by partnering with the leading insurance providers in various countries. As more telehealth players vie for these network connections, differentiation will be a taller order.

“In this case [insurer partnerships], the first-mover advantage is quite important, but just because you’re the first through the wall, doesn’t mean you stay there forever. You’ll only remain as an incumbent if you are good at what you’re doing, and that continues to be our focus,” says Lim, who set up the company in 2017.

“When we first started doing this, nobody in Southeast Asia had heard of telehealth. Today, people are used to consumer digital health like they’re used to buying things on Lazada. In that sense, we have been quite blessed to have other sectors leading the curve for us – and at the same time as the pandemic. But that advantage is ours to lose if we don’t provide good services.”

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Healthcare
• Technology
• Expansion
• Singapore
• Asia Partners
• OSK Ventures International
• SBI Holdings
• Novo Holdings
• Square Peg Capital
• EDBI