Japan-based M3 Inc. has acquired a majority stake in DailyRounds, a community-based platform for doctors and medical students that counts venture capital firm Accel India as one of its investors.
The acquisition marks M3's entry into case-based problem-solving community platform and medical test preparation business in India, a statement said. It did not disclose the financial details.
M3's existing business in India is Health Impetus Pvt. Ltd, a joint venture with Quadria Capital-backed home healthcare services provider Health Care at Home India. Health Impetus, which operates under the brand M3 India, runs online portals that help Indian doctors stay abreast with the latest in research, medical news, evidence-based medicine, practice guidelines and expert articles.
M3 India CEO Amit Singh said the acquisition will help the company reach out to 450,000 doctors in India. “It will also enable M3 to escalate its marketing support and market research businesses to pharmaceutical and medical devices companies through the expansion of doctor membership and enhancement of medical education contents,” he added.
M3, which operates a specialised portal for medical professionals, also intends to import services and technologies developed in Japan and other countries to build next-generation healthcare technologies in India, the statement said.
DailyRounds is operated by Neuroglia Health Pvt. Ltd. It was founded in 2014 by Deepu Sebin, an MD in internal medicine and critical care; Nimmi Cherian, a former research officer at IIT-Madras and a mobile developer at CTS; and Priyaank Choubey, a former CTO at Spiffout, a customer engagement platform. DailyRounds was part of GSF India's global accelerator programme and has just become part of Microsoft Ventures.
In March 2015, DailyRounds had raised $500,000 (Rs 3.1 crore) in a seed round of funding from early-stage VC firm Kae Capital, Japanese internet investor Teruhide Sato (founder of Beenos) and GSF India. In September 2016, it raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Accel India and Asuka Holding of Japan.
The health-tech segment has recorded some strategic transactions in the past few months.
Last month, online pharmacy NetMeds Marketplace Pvt. Ltd acquired health-tech startup KiViHealth in a cash-and-stock transaction.
Health-tech platform Medlife International Pvt. Ltd acquired Mumbai-based digital healthcare platform and home diagnostics services company MedLabz for an undisclosed sum in February.
