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Marginal health

Practo and the perils of plenty

It raised too much venture capital, at too high a valuation. Threw too many hats in the health-tech ring whose coda, as we know, isn’t ‘fast fail’. Now down to 900 people, from 2000+ just two years ago, Practo is leaner but is it also wiser as it hits the fund-raising road?

08/10/18

Seema Singh

Practo built India’s largest doctor search and discovery platform and then squandered the lead trying to sell at any cost

Its primary consumer all this while, doctors, don’t accept its value proposition

Practo has pivoted; now it wants to sell to consumers. Health-tech looks more like health commerce

It has thrown money at problems in the past, will it do better this time?

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It’s 8:30 PM. The orthopaedic clinic in north Bengaluru is teeming with patients on Thursday night. Most of them are glued to their phones, the screen glow drowning the dismay of the often hour-long wait-in. The receptionist, meanwhile, manages with a fat diary, appointments neatly listed and ticked off as the clock noiselessly ticks. There’s…

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