Doceree Inc., which operates an eponymous health-technology firm focussed on physician engagement, has raised $1 million (approximately Rs 7.51 crore at current exchange rates) in its seed funding round.
The round was led by Beyond Codes founder and CEO Kumar Gaurav, with participation from a group of angel investors in India and the US, Doceree said in a statement.
Others that contributed to the round include investors from the advertising and pharmaceutical industries.
The New Jersey and New Delhi-based company said it will use the funds for customer acquisition, recruiting talent, scaling up its operations in India and the US, and enhancing its technological infrastructure.
The startup says it has also inducted veteran investor Rahul Gupta to its management board. Gupta has made investments in companies across the information technology, healthcare and real estate sectors.
Doceree was founded by Harshit Jain last year and began operations in the US before expanding to India in March. The firm says its programmatic physician engagement platform aims to address rising healthcare costs by using data-oriented technology to add efficiency to physician engagement and other related metrics in the ecosystem.
“While pharma companies spend a huge amount to market physicians in the traditional way, they are not able to tap the vast potential of the digital medium to grow their businesses. That is the gap Doceree plugs,” Jain said.
Doceree says it has over one million physicians as part of its network in the US, and that its India operation has so far managed to partner with around three lakh physicians. It also claims to have signed up several pharmaceutical brands to its platform.
The investment in the company is another example of investor attention to the larger health-tech segment. Companies in the space seek to augment existing systems with technology layers, intending to increase access to healthcare and eliminating the large costs involved with it.
Last week, the medical consultation platform DocsApp raised $9.6 million (around Rs 72.6 crore) in funding led by Fusian Capital. Other investors that took part in the round included Rebright Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners and the California-based Milliways Ventures.
Also last week, early-stage investor Inflection Point Ventures led a $1 million (around Rs 7.5 crore) pre-Series A funding round in the mobile-first platform Phable. Last month, Akna Medical Pvt. Ltd, which operates a healthcare supply chain, raised around Rs 54 crore in a Series A funding round from LGT Lightstone Aspada.