Tencent-backed telemedicine start-up Practo's IPO to hit market soon: Report

Tencent-backed telemedicine and mobile health startup Practo will be hitting the stock market with its initial public offering (IPO) within two years, co-founder and chief technical officer Abhinav Lal said on Monday. The company recently posted its annual results, where it managed to cut down its losses. For FY23, Practo's losses stood at Rs 93.68 crore, down from Rs 211.86 crore in FY22.

The company's revenue increased marginally by 3 per cent from Rs 188.90 crore in FY22 to Rs 194.53 crore in FY23.

In its annual statement, Practo said it is striving for sustainable financial growth, while delivering exceptional service through a full-stack model. It seeks to explore opportunities in the phygital space, adopting a mix of franchise and company-owned models.

Lal on Monday told Mint: “We should end FY24 with profits. Not a quarter, not a month, but a full-year profit. We should be in the green again after 14 or maybe 12 years. With the focus on profitability, we are 12-18 months away from an IPO."

Lal added that the proceeds of the IPO will be used to fund growth, considering that investors are not looking to exit.

“None of them... (investors looking for an exit), thankfully for us. That’s where we have been very selective. To be very honest, a lot of it is going to be about future growth," he added.

Founded by Shashank Navalurkar Dattatreya and Abhinav Lal in 2008, Practo is an online appointment booking and telemedicine platform, where patients can touch base with doctors, surgeons, clinics, hospitals, pharmacies, and diagnostics. It also offers online consultations and home delivery of medicines. It ventured into secondary care surgery service in 2021.

The platform already has 150,000 doctor partners, and around 1.7-1.8 million visitors come to its platform every year. It is present across 720 cities, 13,900 pin codes across 20 countries. About a million appointments are booked every year on the platform.

Revenues had grown by 100 per cent year-on-year in FY22, which was also a Covid-19-hit year, and online consultations were at their peak.

In FY22, the company said it has doubled its operating revenue to Rs 188.9 crore, while it further surged to Rs 194.53 crore in FY23. "While our revenues remained steady, we focused on enhancing organic growth, implementing new monetisation models and optimising operational efficiencies, resulting in a 40 per cent improvement in negative EBITDA from Rs 162.26 crore in FY22 to Rs 99.42 crore in FY23," said the company, in a statement.

The start-up, backed by Tencent and venture capital funds Peak XV Partners and Matrix Partners, is planning to diversify into healthcare delivery and other healthcare services.

“We are on track. I think we should be able to get very close to that number and even achieve it. We are 90 per cent-plus confident that we should hit that number, while the tele-consultation business, standalone is profitable," Lal said.

Talking about expansion and business growth, Lal added: “We are on track. I think we should be able to get very close to that number and even achieve it. We are 90 per cent-plus confident that we should hit that number, while the tele-consultation business, standalone is profitable."Increasing the percentage of in-house tele-consultations also helped the firm shore up revenue.

“We provide online consultation at a very affordable price, at Rs 300-400 for a session. We are now covering 100 per cent of the country," he added.

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