Health-tech startup AlternaCare gets $500,000 in seed round from Eros Labs

BENGALURU: Health tech startup AlternaCare has raised $500,000 in a seed round from Eros Labs. AlternaCare provides remote consultation to patients over multiple platforms like phone, video call, SMS and Whatsapp. It started operations in January 2016 and launched its product in April. The startup intends to invest the funds raised in product development, building out its team, branding within its relevant target audience and geographic expansion into key language markets.

AlternaCare uses a proprietary Alterna-Assist technology platform that allows for an instant connection between doctors and like secure electronic health records, online payments and data access.

“Using cloud telephony technology and developing a world-class and highly secure tech product, we are India’s first health tech startup that has removed the dependency on the Internet for doctor consultations as well as facilitating medicine delivery, lab tests,” said Abhishek Dwivedi, cofounder of AlternaCare.

The healthcare market in India is expected to grow at a CAGR of 22.9% and the market size is expected to reach $280 billion by 2020. The digital healthcare market in India is valued at more than $1 billion and is set to cross the $2-billion mark by 2020. Other players in the tele-medicine space include Nexus Venture-backed Lybrate and Buzz4health, a platform for doctors and medical students.

“Access to high quality health care is a very significant challenge in India. This is a fantastic team and a unique model because of its ability to tap into all segments of the population, not limited by access to the Internet. Growth has been great over the last three months,” said Karan Bedi, CEO of Eros Labs.