oDoc start-up bags international award
YourStory, a leading tech publication in India has featured oDoc, a technology platform that allows businesses to grant their employees unlimited access to high quality remote healthcare, as one of the top 50 disruptive start-ups of India for 2019.
Mr. Heshan Fernando
oDoc, a Sri Lankan B2B telemedicine start-up that operates in Sri Lanka, Maldives and India (which they launched early this year) is at number 33 and it is the first time a Sri Lankan start-up has been selected in a top 50 in India list.
“We enable employers to provide a high-impact health-benefit to employees and at the same time banking, financial services and insurance providers to offer a value-added benefit to clients,” said CEO and co-founder Heshan Fernando. The company also has ‘super apps’ to provide a deep integrated telemedicine solution to users.
On how the company started, Mr. Fernando told the Business Times in an interview, that, three years ago his little son was feeling unwell in the middle of the night and was rushed to the hospital for a consultation. “The doctor diagnosed him with a minor ailment and mentioned with an apologetic look ‘you didn’t need to bring him’. The worst thing was I had put my crying son through the experience while he could have been resting in bed. This series of events used to occur almost on a monthly basis. It made me wonder about the number of people who make unnecessary trips to the hospital, wasting both money and time.”
While on yet another visit, flipping through a magazine in the doctors’ waiting room Mr. Fernando came across an article on telemedicine – a method already used throughout the world to consult doctors from anywhere over the phone. This was the start of oDoc to make high quality primary healthcare accessible, affordable and personal for all.
“My co-founders, Dr. Sohan Dharmaraja, Dr. Janaka Wickremesinghe, Sanjay Jayawardena and I launched oDoc in 2017. Soon, seeing the demand for telemedicine from companies, we started selling corporate subscriptions,” Mr. Fernando added further.
Today, with over 250 Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) registered doctors on the platform, across 40 specialisations, oDoc is now the leading telemedicine platform in the island. “We allow our over 40 corporate clients, companies of all sizes and types, to provide free unlimited doctor consultations to their employees starting at just Rs.35 per employee per month. We take pride in helping employers, provide this very personal and caring benefit to their employees,” Mr. Fernando explained.
Currently firms such as LOLC, MAS, Brandix, Crystal Martin Group, AIA etc are using this.
“We are driven each day by being able to facilitate this simple yet life-changing service for people of all backgrounds,” Mr. Fernando noted. The company raised US$1 million in funding in 2017 from LOLC, Brandix and investor Ajit Gunawardene.